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(meteorobs) Excerpts from "CCNet 43/2001 - 19 March 2001"




------- Forwarded Message

From: Peiser Benny <B.J.Peiser@livjm.acdot uk>
To: cambridge-conference <cambridge-conference@livjm.acdot uk>
Subject: CCNet, 19 March 2001
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 09:31:50 -0000

CCNet 43/2001 - 19 March 2001
-----------------------------

[...]

(11) IT'S FLYING ICE BALLS AGAIN 
     Michael Paine <mpaine@tpgi.com.au>

[...]

(16) METEOR SHOWER OVER THE CHANNEL?
     Jiri Borovicka <borovic@asudot cas.cz>

(17) A NUTTY EFFECT ON EROS
     Michael Oates <mike@ph.u-net.com>

==================================================================

(11) IT'S FLYING ICE BALLS AGAIN 

>From Michael Paine <mpaine@tpgi.com.au>

Dear Benny, 

I am skeptical about the following story (it is difficult to explain how a
chunk of ice travelling at 50km/s could survive a collision with the Earth)
but it is interesting to me since it occurred just 3km from where I live! 

regards
Michael Paine

FLYING ICE BLOCK MAY HAVE ALIEN ORIGIN

>From The Daily Telegraph, 17 Mar 2001
http://news.com.au:80/common/story_page/0,4057,1765066%255E421,00.html

Flying ice block may have alien origin. 

A NEW theory has emerged in the mystery surrounding a lumpof ice that fell
through the roof of a Harbord home   -- it could have come from a comet.

NASA has become involved in the investigation and yesterday sent a special
container to Australia to transport the ice to the space agency's
headquarters in California.

The ice, which was 30cm long and 15cm thick, crashed through the roof of a
house in Coles Rd, Harbord, on March 6. The lump pierced the gyprock
ceiling, before hitting the bathroom floor and shattering.

Experts were not able to explain its origin. Dr Roger Buick, lecturer in
geo-sciences at Sydney University, was contacted by Manly police after the
story ran in The Daily Telegraph.

He contacted some former colleagues from NASA, who offered to collect a
sample of the ice for testing. "I've worked for NASA over the years, and
thought that they might be interested in it. They're taking it to their
testing laboratory in California," he said. "They're going to send out a
specialised container to put it in, so it doesn't get contaminated. It's
currently in the freezer of the owners of the house."

Dr Buick said because the origin of the ice could not be explained, there
was a remote possibility it was part ofa comet.

"There's an outside possibility that it could be extra-terrestrial," he
said. "As far as I know, no one's been able to get a decent sample of a
comet before. "NASA spends billions trying to get comet tails, so they'd be
interested to see what we've got."

He agreed the mystery could not be sufficiently explained by weather
conditions or an object dropping from an aircraft. CSIRO atmospheric
researcher Paul Holper said there was no meteorological explanation for such
a large chunk of ice, which was too large to be a hailstone.

A suggestion the ice may have come from a plane flying over the northern
beaches was discounted by Airservices Australia, a spokesman saying it is
`virtually impossible'.

Last week, physics expert Greg Skeoch said the ice may have been travelling
in excess of 200km/h before it hit the house.

NASA operates a program to examine asteroids, meteors and comets in space,
in an attempt to find out their composition and origin. Deep Space One,
launched from Cape Canaveral in October 1998, employs the latest technology
to examine dust and vapours in asteroids and comets as they travel through
the solar system.

It will next come into contact with a comet in September. Once the sample
reaches NASA, the test will be straightforward. Scientists can eliminate the
possibility that the ice came from an extra-terrestrial source if they find
earthly content within it. These could be materials such as sodium chloride,
table salt, or gypsum, chalk.

A similar ice chunk that fell in Meliana, Spain, last January was discounted
as a comet fragment after scientists detected these substances in a sample.

Copyright 2001, Daily Telegraph

===========================
* LETTERS TO THE MODERATOR *
===========================

(16) METEOR SHOWER OVER THE CHANNEL?

>From Jiri Borovicka <borovic@asudot cas.cz>

Dear Benny,

this seems to be a local event rather than a meteor shower. No meteors were
reported here (Czech Republic) despite clear weather
and the photographic all-sky camera at the Ondrejov Observatory detected no
single meteor during that night. The camera is sensitive
to bright meteors (-4 mag and brighter).

Sincerely,

Jiri Borovicka

===========
(17) A NUTTY EFFECT ON EROS

>From Michael Oates <mike@ph.u-net.com>

Dear Benny,

I don't know why the scientists expect to see craters near boulder
groupings, after an impact the debris could be thrown far from the surface
of the asteroid, only to come back to the surface quite some time later due
to the low gravity and the rotation of the asteroid the debris could be
spread over a large area well away from the impact point. Some of the debris
could even remain in orbit for a while before falling back to the surface.

This could explain why some of the boulders seen in the images are split in
too several pieces, these are the debris that has fallen back to the surface
at a relatively slow speed (compared to the initial impact), thereby not
creating a crater themselves, but getting damaged in the process.

Regards,

Michael Oates
Manchester, UK

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