a meteorite falling over Colorado on the plane of the ecliptic
at 11:35 pm would have been a near verticle fall only taking
about 4 to 5 seconds from the time it entered earths
atmosphere till it impacted with the ground. or exploded
in the air.
Such a meteorite would be luminous for a few seconds, but would slow to a
subsonic speed while still very high- 10 or 20 miles or more. The remainder
of the fall would take several minutes. That's why sonic booms associated
with meteorite falls are reported a few minutes before the actual impact.
Only a fraction of a percent of falls might involve an object still
traveling faster than sound at impact. And such a fall would certainly
produce a massive fireball- something that was not observed despite the
presence of operating allsky cameras in the area.
there has to my knowlege never been heard a boom more than
9 miles away because the curve of the earth doesnt allow it
to reach the ground.
The distance sonic booms can be heard depends on the energy of the shock
wave, which mainly depends on the size of the supersonic object, and also on
the ground path and altitude. Meteors and high altitude aircraft produce
sonic booms at ground level when they are below about 30 miles. As those
here who have investigated meteorite falls are well aware, reports of sonic
booms are common for large events over a diameter of 20-30 miles- much more
than your 9 mile estimate.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Dunklee" <sdunklee72...@yahoo.com>
To: "meteoritecentral" <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>; "Gary Chase"
<garych...@live.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 3:00 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Hole in Red Rock Lounge Roof Still
aMystery?????
gee boing bomb is not going to make a loud boom heard 3 blocks away. a
friend of mine has a 3 inch cannon but the last time he shot it it
disrupted cell phone service, almost caused several auto accidents and
resulted in having his house surrounded by the local police who asked " Mr
Boyde could you please come out of your house?" his projestile was a wad of
wet newspapers.
Chris Petersons explaination while having some merrit is not supported by
scientific fact. sonic booms travel at the speed of sound and the time it
takes the boom to reach you depends on your distance from the event, and a
lot of other factors, like cannon balls traveling at over the speed of sound
under 4 inches make no sonic boom. just a kind of whizzing whooshing sound.
and smaller objects like bullets only make a buzzing sound like a bee even
at 4 times the speed of sound.
a meteorite falling over Colorado on the plane of the ecliptic at 11:35 pm
would have been a near verticle fall only taking about 4 to 5 seconds from
the time it entered earths atmosphere till it impacted with the ground. or
exploded in the air. the shock wave in front of it would have created a
vacume in its tail which may have allowed a 3 inch stone or iron to be
cradled in an envelope trailing the main mass which was destroyed. in the
same way that unburned gunpowder is found on the victims of gunshots at
bullet velocities of 3k fps or more. the speed of sound you must know is
only about 750 fps and depends on air pressure, humidity, temp, and the size
of the object.
there was an f15 eagle crashed near my house several years ago. a sonic
boom traveling 3 minutes at the speed of sound by Mr Petersons reasoning at
close to 7 seconds a mile should be heard around 25 miles away. there has to
my knowlege never been heard a boom more than 9 miles away because the curve
of the earth doesnt allow it to reach the ground.
are there any volunteers from the list that want to sit on an artillary
range and listen for the sonic boom of an incomming 144mm faster than sound
shell? i hope not because they dont make one!
cheers
Steve
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