Hi Mike-
Meteorites are falling at terminal velocity for miles before they hit. They
rapidly lose all of their original velocity components. So yes, this
particular meteorite would have behaved the same regardless of its entry
characteristics.
The ground is hard... really, really hard. In many cases, you can consider
it to be essentially incompressible. So even a heavy object landing hard and
fast can easily find itself sitting in nothing more than a shallow divot.
Roofs and ceiling, on the other hand, are generally pretty flimsy. A small,
dense object traveling at 100 m/s can rather easily pierce such structures.
Meteorites do chip stone and concrete when they land. It really doesn't take
all that much energy to do that. Toss a stone off a cliff onto rocky ground
and you'll see plenty of chipping, and the tossed stone probably won't even
have reached terminal velocity.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Hankey" <[email protected]>
To: "Chris Peterson" <[email protected]>
Cc: "meteorite list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Updated Lorton trajectory
George/Chris,
I wasn't sure about this hence the ? , at the end of the sentence,
but conceptually i was thinking a steeper entry angle would result in the
meteorite reaching the ground with more velocity after traveling less
distance, but I guess I'm wrong about this.
Chris to your point -- it wouldn't make a difference -- the meteorite
would
have punched through the roof and cracked the cement floor regardless of
the
entry angle?
I guess I've been under the assumption that meteorites are generally
sitting
ontop of the ground and don't hit the ground with enough force to bury
themselves. But I can't help thinking that if this 300g rock hit a dirt
field with the same force that it would just be lying ontop of the grass
and
not buried under the ground. If it had enough force to break through a
roof,
a firewall and crack a cement floor wouldn't the same rock be under the
ground if it hit the dirt?
Thanks,
Mike
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