[meteorite-list] Meteorites on Mars

From: Charles Viau <cviau_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:00 2004
Message-ID: <003901c3d5b7$ac6c0e40$1800a8c0_at_chupa>

Ron makes a great point here. It follows that almost all meteorites on
Mars should produce some kind of crater and most would be vaporized...
Does anyone out there know what the terminal velocity ratio is for Mars?

CharlyV

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-admin_at_meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-admin_at_meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Ron
Baalke
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 4:39 PM
To: Meteorite Mailing List
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorites on Mars

>1. Mars' thinner atmosphere means more
>meteorites survive the fall though it
>than on Earth.

There are a number of factors to consider. Mars is smaller
than Earth, so has less gravity to pull in meteoroids.
However, Mars is closer to the asteroid belt, so is more
likely to encounter meteoroids than Earth. The thinner atmosphere means
it is more likely a meteorite will reach the surface, but it
also means it is more likely to impact at hypervelocity
speeds, and hypervelocity impacts tends to totally
vaporize meteorites.

Ron Baalke

______________________________________________
Meteorite-list mailing list
Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Thu 08 Jan 2004 02:18:49 AM PST