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(meteorobs) Fw: orbits
I have passed much of the comments about meteor orbits etc on meteorobs,
to Dr. Jeremy Tatum. an astronomer and physics professor at the University
of Victoria. He is also a member of MIAC, The Meteorites and Impacts
Advisory Committee of the Canadian Space Agency. His comments should clear
up much of the speculations on this subject.
Ed Majden
Subject: orbits
Hello, Ed:
I have been rather concerned with the cavalier ease with which
some people believe that pre-encounter meteoroid orbits can be
computed, and the subsequent conclusions about their origins.
Let it be absolutely clear, that it is quite impossible to
compute the pre-encounter orbit of a meteoroid, even in the roughest
approximation, unless precise measurements are made of its position and
velocity along its atmospheric path. I am not familiar with the
circumstances of many of the meteorites mentioned in the current
correspondence, but there were to my knowledge no instrumental
measurements of either the position or the velocity (and I stress
again that both are essential) of St Robert, and consequently that any
conclusions about its pre-encounter orbit are sheer speculation of no
scientific value. I dare say this applies to many of the other
claimed pre-encounter orbits.
Please feel free to convey this to any others who may be engaged in
the current correspondence re pre-encounter orbits of meteoroids.
Jeremy Tatum
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