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(meteorobs) Fw: bolides
For Wayne and Lew:
From the scientist Doug Revelle at LANL
Permission requested to pass this information on to list in the initial
request for information.
I suggest that additional question be made directly to Doug and I feel sure
the list will be enriched with his answers.
Victor
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Victor Noto - Kissimmee, Florida USA
vnn2@phoenixat.com
http://www.phoenixat.com/~vnn2/BIGROCK.htm
Website theme quote:
"Life really is a Rock and
the Big Rock giveth and taketh away all life!!"
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> From: Doug Revelle <dor@vega.lanldot gov>
> To: vnn2@phoenixat.com
> Cc: dor@vega.lanldot gov
> Subject: Re: bolides
> Date: Wednesday, February 18, 1998 6:25 PM
>
> Dear Victor- Yes, I am the source of all these statements about bolides.
My
> statement about being overdue for the 60 million year event is based on
> conversations with Shoemaker and others. If the repeat frequency of these
big
> catastrophic events is really 60 +/-10 million years (due to
observational
> errors, etc.), then being within 3 million years of an impact is not
really
> significant I'm afraid. I'm sorry if this misleads you or anyone else,
but these
> are only statistical estimates (on the average) in any event. No one can
ever
> know for sure when this event will repeat or even if it is likely to be
only a
> single object. There are those that even have proposed the impact was
really
> several objects, i.e., like buckshot (for example the Shoemaker-Levy-9
impact on
> Jupiter).
> I know of at least three incidents of large numbers of fireballs
entering the
> atmosphere in a short time since 1991. We have even written a paper on
one of
> these events (October 4, 1996 over California). The major event of this
swarm
> was detected at the ground using our infrasound system (with 5 arrays of
sensors
> in the Western US). I don't really think that the rate of bolides
arriving has
> changed much for a long time. I do think more people than ever before are
> becoming aware of the activity by looking up in the sky and by hearing
repeated
> broadcasts by the mass media, etc. If you ahve more questions I will try
to
> answer them.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Doug
ReVelle
>