[meteorite-list] 'Iridium Flares'

From: Mark Crawford <mark_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:19:49 +0100
Message-ID: <469EA015.4030004_at_annasach.net>

Jerry,

Iridium was originally envisaged as an array of 77 communication
satellites - 77 being the atomic number of Iridium. Think of earth as
the nucleus, the satellites as the electrons, in the standard high
school model of the atom.

In fact it's actually around 66 satellites, but "Terbium" doesn't have
quite the same cachet. More at the Wiki here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_%28satellite%29

Marko

Jerry Flaherty wrote:

> Larry, Kevin and List, why are these reflections called "iridium
> flares"? Is the surface reflecting the sunlight an iridium alloy?
> Jerry Flaherty
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu>
> To: "kevin decker" <innocentwolf15 at hotmail.com>
> Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 10:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 'Iridium Flares'
>
>
Received on Wed 18 Jul 2007 07:19:49 PM PDT