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RE: (meteorobs) Excerpts from "CCNet 123/2001 - 22 November 2001"
Just thought i might add - a graphic demonstration of how fragile cometary
material is,was the Tunguska event of 1908 where a cometary fragment
exploded when it entered the atmosphere. As far as i know,despite this
being a large meteor,no meteorites were ever recovered.
It's generally accepted that the fragment belonged to the Taurid meteoroid
stream,and the meteors which enter the atmosphere have a substantially
lower entry velocity compared to Leonids,which would make them more lightly
to survive the journey to the ground -and yet none were recovered(although
there is still the possibility that currently undiscovered fragments did
make it to the ground)!
Having said all that i will now contradict myself,and site the more recent
case of the Tagish Lake Meteorite (January 18 2000) which was also
attributed to a cometary fragment. Although it also exploded after entering
the atmosphere,some fragments were recovered,well preserved from the frozen
surface of the lake. So i guess cometary material can survive intact,albeit
exceptionally rare!
Both of the examples I've given are of events much larger than "standard"
Leonid fireballs,but i guess the same principals would apply ???
Leo
At 10:41 06/12/01 -0800, you wrote:
>Thanks for the various responses to my questions. While I personally doubt
>the claim to a meteorite find in Indiana during the Leonid shower, I was
>probing the possibility that such an occurrence was not completely out of
>the realm of possibility. I notice no one addressed the hypothetical
>question of whether a comet could sweep up material and later re-release it.
>Seems plausible, at least to me.
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