[meteorite-list] Meteoroid burned up before impact on Mars

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 18:15:27 -0600
Message-ID: <11B4EE69FAB14E0486E722593EBDF623_at_bellatrix>

I doubt if any meteorite impacts (in the usual sense) cause fires. There's
simply no mechanism by which meteorites can be particularly hot. Of course,
if a meteoroid hits while still carrying some of its original velocity, a
lot of energy can be released. But such an event is extremely rare. One in
millions at least.

Even assuming the explanation for the pattern on Mars is correct (which
seems far from certain), it's clear that this sort of thing is very rare. On
Earth, with its much denser atmosphere, it should be rarer still.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Kurtz" <Thomas.Kurtz at gmx.de>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 4:49 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteoroid burned up before impact on Mars


>
> Amazing picture ! Under special circumstances such an event could be
> possible even on Earth and
> in my opinion, it would ignite a fire for sure. Perhaps 1 of 1000
> meteorite hits ignite something on the ground e.g. dry grass.
>
> Is there a proofed example ?
>
> With best wishes from Ries-impact crater,
>
> Thomas Kurtz
Received on Thu 02 Oct 2008 08:15:27 PM PDT