Stewart Stremler wrote: > begin quoting John H. Robinson, IV as of Tue, Jun 21, 2005 at 04:24:08PM > -0700: > [snip] > > A meteor is the light phenomon associated with a meteroid coming > > throughthe atmosphere. Once it strikes, it is a meteorite. As per the > > definition, it should hit the earth's crust, however I am certain that > > it can be extended to any planetary (or satellite) surface, including > > inhabitants. > > I am not so certain. If simple proximity counted, you might as well call it a > meteorite for hitting the atmosphere. But we don't do that, so I don't > think it's nearly so clear-cut.
What about if it hits the ocean? What would you have it called? In the case of hitting a person, you are talking about a 6' difference away from the surface. In the case of the atmosphere, you are talking about, say, 372 miles[1]. That is a difference of 32736000%. This is not insignifcant. [1] http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/atmosphere.html -john -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
