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Re: (meteorobs) P/2000 G1 & Vgeo
----- Original Message -----
From: "exceld77" <excel@sioldot net>
To: <meteorobs@jovian.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2000 3:41 AM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) P/2000 G1 & Vgeo
> Iron meteoroides probably have high thermal conductivity since they are
made of metals. But stony meteoroids and cometary snow flakes have lower
thermal conductivity than iron meteoroids, so they will obviously behave in
a different way. The thermal conductivity, given a constant meteoroid size
for all materials, will then determine how much time is required for the
meteoroid to reach its boiling point. For a given size the maximum
luminosity will be reached by the cometary meteoroid. Then come iron and
stony meteoroids. Is there a connection between the thermal conductivity of
a meteoroid - the rate at which the material will absorb the thermal energy
and the luminosity of the meteor?
>
> Perhaps the iron meteoroids produce less luminous meteors because they
absorb the thermal energy of the ionized gas that envelops them quicker than
cometary meteoroids, thus reducing the amount of ionization and thus the
luminosity?
>
> Man, I'm waaay off, and probably way off truth as well.
I believe you're only partly off. I can see that a meteor's luminosity would
be inversely proportional to its thermal conductivity because of the amount
of ionized gas that stays around it. But if that is so, then stony meteors
would be closer in brightness to cometary than to iron meteors.
By the way, your terminology leads me to ask, do the members of this list
recognize the difference between meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites?
Paul O. Johnson
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