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(meteorobs) Re: Possible Meteors from Mars?

>    A recent thread on the meteorite-list suggested a possible martian
> meteoroid stream with a maximum on October 3rd. List member Steve Schoner
> suggested this, and pointed out that two famous martian meteorite falls,
> Chassigny (1815), and Zagami (1962) fell on this date. No location of a
> possible radiant was given, but maybe someone on this last can calculate
> a theoretical radiant.

I like the idea, but the point is, I cannot conceive of any kind of orbital
mechanics that would deliver Martian meteorites to earth in the form of a
concise stream. A stream results when debris is trailing a parent object in
similar orbits, e.g. trailing an (near-earth orbit) asteroid or comet.
Ordinary meteorites can have an origin in a near-earth asteroid. But Martian
meteorites by definition do not. It is debris thrown away from the Martian
surface in presumably widely varying trajectories. I cannot conceive of any
mechanism which would cause this to form a compact stream. It would require
an asteroid-sized body of SNC composition in a Near Earth orbit with debris
originating on this body (and not Mars itself) trailing it and I don't see
how that would be possible, for debris originating from an impact on Mars.
If SNC meteorites would really form a stream, then this in fact might
indicate that Mars is NOT their parent object. Unless someone from the
impact-scientists can point out the likelyness of an impact on Mars throwing
a significantly *large* body (i.e. asteroid size) into a NEA orbit. Just my
2 cents worth of thoughts on this. Comments welcome.

- Marco

PS: I fully second the call to be alert for fireballs these days. There is
something odd with these late september-early october fireballs over the
years. Only observational data can determine whether it is a stream.

------
Marco Langbroek
Leiden, the Netherlands
52.15896 N, 4.48884 E (WGS 84)

meteorites@dmsweb.org
http://home.wanadoodot nl/marco.langbroek
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