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RE: (meteorobs) Excerpts from "CCNet 123/2001 - 22 November 2001"
OK, I buy the explanation that a 10kg bag of flour will hit the moon with
the same KE as a 10kg rock. What, then, provides for the paper bag in your
analogy? What keeps a 10kg "bag" of comet-stuff bound together when the
majority of ejected mass is reduced to individual grains? Is the hypothesis
that a comet can include an occasional small rocky object completely
inconsistent with modern comet formation theory? What would happen, for
example, if a comet passing through the asteroid belt had a head-on with a
marble-sized rock? Would the KE vaporize the rock, or could some of it
survive, embedded, to be released later as the comet's surface receded?
-Robert Hayden
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-meteorobs@atmob.org [mailto:owner-meteorobs@atmob.org]On
Behalf Of Rob McNaught
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 2:29 PM
To: meteorobs@atmob.org
Subject: RE: (meteorobs) Excerpts from "CCNet 123/2001 - 22 November
2001"
On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, Robert Hayden wrote:
> Riddle me this. If all meteors from comets are very fragile dust grains,
> explain the flashes on the moon. If, on one hand we readily accept that
the
> dust trails include chucks that are large enough to generate a flash on
the
> moon visable from Earth, isn't it plausible that similarly sized chunks
hit
> Indiana? Not that I would uncritically accept the story of the Yurans
> (presumably from the planet Yura), but the out-of-hand dismissal by
> astronomer Hammergren seems rash in view of the lunar observations.
Image 10kg of flour in a paper bag. It will hit the Moon with the
same kinetic energy as a 10kg metal block (or 10kg of feathers or whatever).
The same bag of flour hitting the atmosphere will soon lose the
protective bag and the loose flour would cause a dramatic flare in
brightness as the surface area is massively increased in a fraction of a
second. It dissipates high in the atmosphere and no meteorite reaches the
Earth's surface.
Cheers, Rob
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