(meteorobs) Long path meteor -spiraling- *Magnified*

[Jim Wooddell]

Hi Chris and all,

I believe science has already look at this.  If I may refer to the late Dr. 
Norton's books, he does write about all of this.
I can only share what I my research reveals, thus the reason I asked if 
there was reference (scientific documentation, research, etc) that suggested 
they don't tumble.
I believe the ablation characteristics of meteorites absolutely is evidence 
of a type of flight, at least when it was incandescent.  However, this does 
not account necessarily account for large single mass falls.  Still there is 
evidence with large meteoroids( astoroids) , such as Hoba, where it's pretty 
reasonable to suggest a type of flight.

Kind Regards,

Jim


Jim Wooddell
https://k7wfr.us


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
To: "Meteor science and meteor observing" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Long path meteor -spiraling- *Magnified*


>I don't think anybody is suggesting that they don't tumble (that is,
> rotate around more than one axis). They can do this in space, and they
> can do it in the atmosphere.
>
> Spiraling is very different- that suggests a helical trajectory. I don't
> think this happens, unless it is on a very tiny scale (for example, the
> helix diameter is on the order of the size of the meteoroid).
>
> I don't think you can conclude much of anything about the shape of a
> meteoroid during most of its flight from the shapes of recovered 
> meteorites.
>
> Chris
>
> *******************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
>
> On 12/5/2011 2:32 PM, Jim Wooddell wrote:
>> Hi all!
>>
>> There seems to be three basic shapes to meteorites that suggest what 
>> their
>> flight characteristics were within our atmosphere prior to them smacking 
>> the
>> ground.
>> 1.  Spherical - where random tumbling occurred.
>> 2.  Cone - where the rotation axis was along the direction of motion.
>> 3.  Shield - where the flight was stable, no tumbling, no rotation.
>>
>> I have recovered meteorites of all three shapes and without counting I 
>> would
>> say my finds indicate mostly meteorites that were shields, then 
>> spherical,
>> then cone, in order of quantity recovered.
>>
>> Based on this, I do think it is reasonable to think that meteoroids can 
>> and
>> do tumble.  Is there some reference somewhere that suggests they don't?
>>
>>
>> Happy Holidays!
>>
>> Jim
>>
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