[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

(meteorobs) clumping



Looking into the heart of a comet.... We can see debris ablated by the Solar Wind and the radiant energy of the Sun. This is the source of the random distribution process that leads to clumping (a statistical treatment). 
But........
Once a mass has broken free, it may be subjected to further stress or collision creating a mini-association of related particles. Over time these will drift apart (in detail best exactly described by the pros) and yet appear physically along the same path.
It is one thing to see a spike in your count as meteors enter on various paths. It is another to see them in parallel paths with only a mile or so of divergence and separated in time by a few seconds.
It is my hypothesis that particles exhibiting this behavior are from a parent particle and that the clumping is not random. This is not to say that there is some larger parent out there but that the particle has broken up into smaller components.  This is the point where random clumping become sytematic clumping.
 
Any thoughts?
 
Tom

Follow-Ups: