(meteorobs) Tumbling meteoroids? Tumbling meteors?
Chris Peterson
clp at alumni.caltech.edu
Sun Aug 28 11:49:24 EDT 2011
Everything in the Universe spins, and that includes meteoroids. Usually,
"spin" means to rotate about a single axis, and "tumble" means to rotate
about more than one axis. Many, perhaps most, meteoroids also tumble
while in space.
Certainly, the aerodynamics of a meteoroid in the atmosphere will alter
the spin/tumble behavior. That means that it may be introduced, or more
commonly, stabilized from a tumble to a simple spin or fixed
orientation. There are a number of papers on this subject.
Chris
*******************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
On 8/27/2011 1:54 PM, Thomas Ashcraft wrote:
> Questions:
>
> Are meteoroids generally tumbling in space?
>
> When a meteoroid/meteor enters into the Earth's atmosphere can the
> atmosphere or ionosphere itself cause any tumbling?
>
> Thomas in New Mexico
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