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Re: (meteorobs) Meteorites and Terminal velocity
me>>......His velocity during the free fall reached over 700 mph before
>reaching the denser part of the atmosphere with a slower terminal velocity.
>His free fall lasted over 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Apparently his fall
>didn't generate enough heat to damage his fragile human body.<<
>>Uh... don't the faster meteorites enter the atmosphere something more like
700 miles per TEN SECONDS (around 30-72 km/sec)?? Quite a bit faster than
700 mph, in any case.<<
Yes, even slow meteoroids enter the atmosphere something like 700 miles per
ten seconds. But I'm basically talking about football size meteorites that
have begun their free fall segment during the dark flight stage. By the time
they have reached an altitude of about 20 miles above the earth, they would
have slowed down to a speed that would be considered free fall. They would
have a terminal velocity comparable to what Joe Kittenger experienced during
his free fall from his 20 mile jump from a balloon. If the meteorite was
quite a big larger, it would travel even lower into the atmosphere before
reaching a terminal velocity minus all it's cosmic velocity. It's been
estimated that about a 10 ton meteorite would have something about 2000 mph
velocity just before hitting the ground, thus with a small percentage of it's
cosmic velocity intact. The smaller the meteorite after the meteor phase, the
higher up it will be when it starts a free fall phase and reaching terminal
velocities. A small meteorite will have a fairly long free fall to cool off
any excess heat if it were there. However, I can easily see some heat
generated from the free fall process, but nothing of a radical nature.
GeoZay
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