Hi Patrick,
This may help:
http://www.meteorites.com.au/odds&ends/myths.html
Cheers,
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Wiggins" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 3:04 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Ram pressure question
Hi all,
Could someone please explain what "ram pressure" is?
Has it got something to do with when air is compressed it heats up so when
a meteor passes through the atmosphere it compresses the air in front of
it causing the air's temperature to rise and it's that heat that ablates
all but the very small meteors?
Many thanks,
patrick
N Utah USA
On 23 Nov 2010, at 15:03, Chris Peterson wrote:
Heating is due to ram pressure for bodies larger than a few millimeters.
For very small particles, ram pressure is not a factor because of the
large distance between air molecules compared with the cross-sectional
area. These small particles do heat up as the result of collisions with
molecules, in a process that is analogous to friction.
In other words, for all bodies that produce meteorites, frictional
heating effects are insignificant.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message ----- From: "JoshuaTreeMuseum"
<[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 2:22 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Temperature of meteorites
I was under the impression that it's a myth that direct friction from O
and N molecules on the surface of a meteorite create the heat that
causes ablation. I thought that ram pressure in front of the meteorite
was the main factor in generating heat. The KE and PE would create a hot
shock layer which would flow back around the meteorite causing its outer
layer to melt. I would think that friction is a minor factor, unless
you're talking about ram pressure as a kind of friction.
Phil Whitmer
______________________________________________
Visit the Archives at
http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html
Meteorite-list mailing list
[email protected]
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
______________________________________________
Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html
Meteorite-list mailing list
[email protected]
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
