It's certainly true in the strictest sense that virtually 100% of the mass
survives entry. However, I think most people here quite correctly
interpreted the original question in terms of how much mass ends up as
something you can hold in your hand at the end of the day- not dust and gas!
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Dunklee" <[email protected]>
To: "meteorite list" <[email protected]>; "Chris Peterson"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 7:35 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] How much survives entry?
mass converted to light would require fusion. all of the mass of a
meteorite is retained by the earth. most is dust from ablation. how much
reaches the ground depends on a lot of variables like velocity of impact
angle of impact, specific gravity of meteorite, water content or volatile
gas content of meteorite. even the humidity of the air or density of ion
count in the magnetosphere. in most cases all of the meteorite vaporises.
or explodes. from impact with the ionosphere. its very thin but like
hitting a brick wall at 17kmph. so saying how much is going to survive is
like asking how many licks it will take to get to the center of a
tootsiepop lol
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