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Re: (meteorobs) Re: Point meteor!
>What I wanted to say is, that if you happen to see a point fireball
>(not in the zenith!), there would be no chance od being hit by a potential
>meteorite, as the meteorite would travel on a parabolic trajectory.
That is the most important fact here. If the meteor is aimed at you at the
point of luminance, then gravity makes you safe.
>How much could the earth have turned in the <5seconds time the meteorite
>would take to fall to the ground?
At the equator it would be more than a mile. At other latitudes it would be
less by the product of the equator value and the cosine of the latitude.
>Also, there is no definite time required for a meteorite
>to reach the ground. But since the meteoroid's speed would have to be
>reasonably
>low at the beginning for it to reach the ground (less than 28 or something
>km/s?)
>and the terminal velocity would be around 2 to 4 km/s, I guess it would
>take more
>than 5 seconds from the beginning of the luminous path to the meteorite
>drop
The terminal velocity is more like seconds per kilometer rather than
kilometers per seconds so there is plentry of time for gravity to curve the
path.
Clear skies,
Terry
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