[meteorite-list] Dumb Questions About Meteors & Meteorites

From: Greg Hupe <gmhupe_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:22:09 -0500
Message-ID: <752389414EA248B19BAE27818094887B_at_Gregor>

Hi Sterling,

I always enjoy your 'down-to-earth' reasoning! Thank you! :-)
Greg

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Meteorites USA" <eric at meteoritesusa.com>; "Meteorite-list"
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:05 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Dumb Questions About Meteors & Meteorites


> Hi, Eric,
>
> The Earth collects dust. Not just from meteors
> and meteoroids burning up in the atmosphere
> but directly from space. The Earth gravitationally
> collects solar wind particles, zodaical dust,
> interplanetary dust, interstellar dust, cometary
> dust, dust from a variety of sources. Whoops! I
> left out intergalactic dust...
>
> Dust falls in slowly and takes months (or years)
> to settle to the surface. It can be measured in the
> layers of ocean sediments and icecap cores.
>
> How much dust accumulates is hard to measure,
> so the amount has been a long-running question.
> Here's a really good discussion of the dust question:
> http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/moon-dust.html
> although it's in the context of an "age of the Earth"
> argument with Creationists.
>
> Interplanetary dust is hard to analyse because it's so tiny:
> http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/simple_template.cfm?code=resources_dust&CFID=4156261&CFTOKEN=70584526
>
> Here's an interview with Don Brownlee ("Mr. Dust"):
> http://euro.astrobio.net/interview/742/extraterrestrial-capture
>
> A good summary of all the kinds of dust from "out there":
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_dust
>
> Or, just Google "interplanetary dust" and you will
> find many, many sources of information on dust infall:
> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=interplanetary+dust+&aq=f&aql=&aqi=&oq=
> then Google "interstellar dust" and Google "zodaical dust"
> and...
>
> Space is dusty. The Earth is dusty. And best of all,
> the Internet is dusty. Lots of information out there.
>
> Best of all, you can collect rainwater, then extract the
> metallic dust from it with magnets. Most of the dust will
> be human produced smoke dust, but the tiny dull metallic
> spheres are probably "cosmic" dust. Every time you walk
> out the door, you're stepping on cosmic dust. It's everywhere.
> If you spend a fair amount of time out in the open air, you
> probably have some cosmic dust incorporated into your body.
>
> I'm going to stop now, before I start singing that Joni
> Mitchell song...
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Meteorites USA" <eric at meteoritesusa.com>
> To: "Meteorite-list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 9:26 PM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Dumb Questions About Meteors & Meteorites
>
>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I'm not too sure how to broach the subject without stepping on toes, so I
>> say this will all due respect to everyone who would be offended by the
>> questions.
>>
>> I've been reading "Meteorites" by Caroline Smith, Sara Russell, and
>> Gretchen Benedix, Firefly Books, 2009. Lovely book, with lots of
>> information on meteorites, their origins, and composition, with loads of
>> illustrations and great photography.
>>
>> As I was flipping through I found a mention about the total weight of
>> meteoritic material which falls on our planet every year. On page 89 it
>> states "...approximately 40,000-60,000 t of extraterrestrial material
>> lands on Earth every year, the majority of which is in the form of tiny
>> dust grains usually less than 1 mm (1/25 in) in size; importantly, most
>> of this dust is believed to originate from comets..."
>>
>> Doesn't this go against what science tells us about meteor showers? Don't
>> the particles and sand-grain sized particles burn up in the atmosphere
>> like science tells us they do? And if they don't burn up completely why
>> does just about every text on meteors say they do? And if that the case,
>> then how is it possible to weigh something that doesn't exist, anymore?
>>
>> I've read this in other places as well, some sources say that there is
>> thousands of tons to millions of tons of meteoritic material landing on
>> Earth every year. Yet...
>>
>> We all "know" that small dust to sand grain sized particles burn up high
>> in the atmosphere, and there is debate on what it takes, or rather how
>> large meteoroids must be to reach the ground and become meteorites. We
>> know Asteroid 2008 TC3 was small but much larger than dust. So if a 3-6
>> meter asteroid can hit Earth, how small of a piece of debris can make it
>> to Earth through the atmosphere? How big was Whetstone Mountain before
>> entering our atmosphere? There was not much of that piece recovered, and
>> the video showed 3 distinct fragments flying briefly through the field of
>> view of the camera. West Texas was a daylight fireball seen from hundreds
>> of miles away, and it produced a good bit of material. Buzzard Coulee
>> too. These recent meteorite falls have been hunted by a large number of
>> very professional meteorite hunters and scientists and yet the TKW of the
>> falls are small except maybe the BC fall. Buzzard Coulee had a HUGE 13
>> kilo piece http://www.skyriver.ca/astro/bruce/marsden_meteorite%205.JPG
>> that impacted the ground and hundreds of other smaller stones recovered.
>>
>> So how big "does" a meteoroid have to be to reach the ground? Do we
>> really know?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Eric Wichman
>> Meteorites USA
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Received on Tue 26 Jan 2010 01:22:09 AM PST