[meteorite-list] Bolides and Peekskill

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

Pete asked:

If this is a worthwhile question, how about Peekskill, which so many of us 
witnessed - how large would that have been at the start of its descent?

Chris wrote:

Peekskill...an initial mass of about 10 tons, so...an almost 2 meter diameter.

Hello List,

Graf et al. (1994) Size and exposure history of the Peekskill meteoroid
(Meteoritics 29-4, 1994, A469): Both values (= measured 26Al activities)
are consistent with a preatmospheric radius of ~50 cm.

Ceplecha Z. et al. (1994) Video observations of the Peekskill H6 meteorite
fireball - Atmospheric trajectory and orbit (Meteoritics 29-4, 1994, A455):

a) ...an initial mass of the order of 10^­4 kg and with initial velocity of 14.7 km/s

b) The dark flight of the recovered meteorite started from a height of 30 km, when
   the velocity dropped below 3 km/s, and the body continued an additional horizontal
   distance of 50 km without ablation, until it hit a parked car in Peekskill, NY, with
   a vertical velocity of about 80 m/s.

Graf et al. (1997) Exposure history of the Peekskill (H6) meteorite
(Meteoritics 32-1, 1997, 25-30):

[We] conclude that Peekskill's radius was less than 70 cm when it entered the Earth's
atmosphere. This size limit is somewhat smaller than the photometric determinations
(Brown et al., 1994).


Best wishes,

Bernd