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Re: (meteorobs) Rotating earth?
Lew Gramer wrote:
>
> cause meteors), Markku! My understanding is that small dust grains of the kind
> inhabiting the Inter-Stellar Medium, are formed thanks to electrostatic
> cohesion, the same force that gives water "surface tension", and causes dust
> bunnies to form on your floor (or my floor anyway)! And I guess according to
> computational models (created by people who know more about this than I!), this
> process can occur even at the low densities found in the ISM.
This sounds plausible, though I wonder if these meteor grains could become dense
enough to avoid break up as different forces shake them up and sling them away
from the comet. Thanks for the information. I must do some reading on this.
> As for meteoroids being ice balls, I think the main problem with this is the
> Sun... Remeber that at "noon", the surface temperature on the Moon is around
> 100oC (212oF). So at 1 A.U., I think these iceballs would be closer to "vapor
> balls", and in fact would probably dissociate very quickly. I'm not SURE of
> that, though! Anyone with more knowledge care to comment?
This seems plausible and obvious, too. So obvious that it didn't occur to
me at all. It could well be that these ice balls could only survive near the
comet itself and maybe only inside of the comet's bow shock. Unless there is
something else that could keep them cold.
On the other hand if the Geminids origin from an asteroid and are wholly
based of meteoric material they should produce stupendous meteor storms and
outdo the Leonids manifoldly, since comet Tempel-Tuttle is probably made up
mostly of ice.
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