The point that Bjorn is missing, or ignoring, is it doesn't matter if there is a debris field around DA14 (or any other NEO). All the debris in such a field has virtually the same orbital parameters as the parent body. Given good information about the atmospheric path of a meteor, the original orbit of the body is unambiguously determinable. We can always say with near complete certainty whether a given meteor is associated with a particular body, and with absolute certainty when it is not.

Chris

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

On 2/17/2013 12:16 AM, MEM wrote:
Facts not in evidence... Chris , one does not need to understand meteors to 
appreciate meteorites. We once had an enchanting if naive young lady named 
Julie on this list who loved to talk meteorites but she never could wrap her 
mind around the physics.  Only in broad concepts did she try to connect the 
dots. (e.g the Earth has a magnetic field so iron meteorites are pulled in more 
than stone meteorites)  But she was precious in her un-waving love of 
meteorites.

I am a "parallel- broad-front-debris-field-believer" and someday we'll prove 
the existence of swarms around NEOs but this isn't the one to go to wrestle over, Bjorn. 
At least not that has to be resolved tonight.  Lets instead savor this once in a lifetime 
experience and see out the facts about the meteoroid and set aside our own irritations 
and agree to disagree.  Everyone has made some strong points but nothing can go further 
until we get a better handle in pre-entry mass/orbit and an actual sample of the 
meteorite before we start assigning a parent body.

  At this rate we will be invoking Goodwin's law by 5 am.   Attacks on the 
messenger never resolve the truth in the message.  Lets not pollute the 
goodwill nor crowd the list with the debate over perceptions and second 
guessing the motivations of each other.

Elton

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