[meteorite-list] Fusion Crusted "Meteoroids"

From: Meteorites USA <eric_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:29:22 -0700
Message-ID: <49CA7802.5050507_at_meteoritesusa.com>

Good points on the production and destruction rates.

Do we know how many meteoroids crash into the Sun or other planets? The
moon is a good example to look for a number of impacting meteoroids, but
it doesn't say how many will graze any given planet though. Unless of
course you're able to figure a ratio of impacting versus grazing bodies.
Does crossing through our atmosphere or the atmosphere of another planet
change the orbit of a meteoroid? I imagine it would right? And would it
come back to hit us again, maybe at a sharper angle? Or would it throw
the meteoroid out into the cosmos never to be seen again?

This really does bring up lots of questions...





Chris Peterson wrote:
> Keep in mind during any analysis that small meteoroids are not in
> stable orbits, and do not persist forever in the Solar System. There
> are drag processes that produce a continual inflow of small objects
> towards (and ultimately into) the Sun, and small objects (especially
> in planet crossing orbits) are continually being perturbed. A
> meteoroid that grazes a planet's atmosphere and receives a fusion
> crust probably has a lifetime measured in millions of years at most,
> and often much less. So you need to consider both the production and
> destruction rate of fusion-crusted meteoroids.
>
> Also, I don't know that talking about absolute numbers is particularly
> useful. Whether that number turns out to be large or small, it
> certainly represents a vanishingly small percentage of the total
> meteoroid population. You're very unlikely while in space to encounter
> any meteoroids at all; it could take a ridiculously long time to find
> one that had previously encountered a planet.
>
> Chris
>
> *****************************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
Received on Wed 25 Mar 2009 02:29:22 PM PDT