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Re: (meteorobs) Re: The Leonid Meteor Outburst of 1997
In a message dated 99-07-19 20:07:09 EDT, you write:
tony<<
For example: Suppose a larger-than-average single clump of friable
cometary material shares the orbit of Tempel-Tuttle. Perhaps it was
ejected from the comet on its approach to the inner solar system in 1997.
The clump is held together just marginally by weak internal cohesion. As
the clump passes perihelion, or perhaps sometime afterward, some
perturbation causes it to break up. A coronal mass ejection would do the
job. Many CMEs cross Earth's orbit and the gas pressure near the fringe of
such an event is strong enough to break up a comet clump, but not so strong
that it would disperse it substantially. Or, the disturbance could be
simple solar heating near perihelion. In any case, the clump disperses not
33 years before impact, but just a few days or weeks. When it strikes
Earth's atmosphere it is still a
somewhat coherent clump, distributed no more than 100 km along the orbit.
>>
I'm under the impression that leonid meteors are from material ejected from
comet tempel-tuttle on previous close returns to the inner solar system in
roughly 33 year increments....not from material ejected the same year the
comet returns.
GeoZay
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