[meteorite-list] Questions regarding Unclassified meteorite sales

[Chris Peterson]

You can't determine anything about orbits from strewn fields, even knowing 
the date and time of the fall. Except in rare cases (such as Sikhote-Alin) 
where the body retains cosmic velocity to, or nearly to, the ground, the 
direction of strewn fields are determined solely by aerodynamics- mostly by 
the atmospheric wind profile. A meteoroid entering from east to west can 
easily produce a strewn field extending from west to east (or north to 
south, or any other orientation).

Chris

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


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Darren Garrison" <cynapse at charter.net>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 9:10 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Questions regarding Unclassified meteorite 
sales


I tend to disagree with most of your points here.  With fossils and human 
artifacts, the context and
stratigraphy and associated artifacts are highly important to understanding 
the fossil or artifact.
But with a meteorite, where it landed and when it was found and who found it 
and the size of the
original chunk are very superficial matters.  It would be interesting to be 
able to determine the
orbit of the original fragment, but (and correct me if I'm wrong) to deduct 
orbits from the
shape/directon of strewn feilds, don't you need to know WHEN it hit? 
Wouldn't you need to know what
time of day, and what day of the year before you could use that strewn feild 
data to get the orbit?