Hi Chris, > I have a question for the list:
> Is it possible that a large body with cosmic velocity could have a > "soft touchdown" on Earth? Nope. > ie not come in 25km/s and be explosively disintegrated by the enormous > kinetic energy that comes with such a large, high speed mass. I could > imagine a situation where the relative velocities between an impactor > and the Earth were <1 km/s so long as the impactor approached on the > same track as the Earth's orbit around the sun. The thing you are neglecting is the earth's gravitational field -- this will accelerate any body (slowly catching up with earth from behind, for instance) to at least the escape velocity of earth. Cheers, Rob ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
