[Meteorite-list] re: Astroids associated with meteorites (McSween)

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon May 30 03:51:49 2005
Message-ID: <12b.5e123696.2fcc200f_at_aol.com>

Elton wrote:

>Hello Jerry,

>You probably are thinking of "Meteorites and Their Parent Bodies" 2nd
>Edition by Harry (Hap ) McSween, Jr

Hola Jerry,

Regarding Asteroids, I also highly recommend "Meteorites and Their Parent
Planets" Second ed. It's a book that always has a new gem of "interesting
information waiting for you when you pick it up. A guide to echinoids, asteroids
and crinoids:) is also useful if you like Earthly asteroids, but:

The nicest astroids are actually from the imaginations of kids that prefer
math to fingerpainting. Did you ever have a Spirograph(R) set when you were
growing up? The basic astroid can be drawn with a ring whose radius is 4
times the radius of a circle you trace inside it resulting in a diamond shape
with concave shapes. If you vary the length you get cycloidal designs
(including awesome psychedelic astroid families best in two or three colors - which
kept me for one, very occupied in those younger days for longer than I'll
likely admit, and probably still would if I had a set.)

And in elliptical orbits, that same concaved sided diamond astroid shape can
be used to constrain (form an envelope which contains the orbital ellipse)
of it if the average of the aphelion and perihelion are known, but not their
indivual values which could come in handy with comets or even meteoroids if
you are really into this stuff.

Hope this adds another dimension to the question...Saludos, Doug
 
Received on Mon 30 May 2005 03:51:43 AM PDT