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Re: (meteorobs) Re: The Leonid Meteor Outburst of 1997
Yes George, I can't see any other option than breakup in the near-Earth
environment. A back of the envelope calculation gives a separation
velocity of the order of 1 cm/sec if it occured 1AU from the Earth and
lower the further back it occurred. This would rule out a collision which
would result in considerably higher velocities.
One approach would be to assume the body fragmented into an expanding
sphere of debris. The orbital period of the fragments differ and produce
a TRAIL of fragments over time (cf satellite debris, meteoroid/dust
trails). The lateral (across path) spread of the meteors compared with
the temporal spread (along path) can allow a calculation of the time from
breakup, given the spherical expansion assumption and that the orbit is
known.
Robert H. McNaught
rmn@aaocbn.aaodot gov.au
On Mon, 19 Jul 1999 GeoZay@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 99-07-19 16:03:23 EDT, you write:
>
> tony<<
> I would also note that there is no easy way to distinguish between a single
> larger meteoroid that fragmented high in the atmosphere vs. a tightly bound
> clump of tiny meteoroids in an orbit roughly matching Tempel-Tuttle's from
> the data we have at our disposal for the 1997 outburst.
> >>
>
> What would keep a "tightly bound clump of tiny meteoroids in an orbit roughly
> matching tempel-tuttle" from not dispersing within 33 years or more so that
> it would appear as a less than 2 second outburst?
> GeoZay
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