[meteorite-list] 'Iridium Flares'

[Mark Crawford]

Jerry,

Iridium was originally envisaged as an array of 77 communication 
satellites - 77 being the atomic number of Iridium.  Think of earth as 
the nucleus, the satellites as the electrons, in the standard high 
school model of the atom.

In fact it's actually around 66 satellites, but "Terbium" doesn't have 
quite the same cachet.  More at the Wiki here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_%28satellite%29

Marko

Jerry Flaherty wrote:

> Larry, Kevin and List, why are these reflections called "iridium 
> flares"? Is the surface reflecting the sunlight an iridium alloy?
> Jerry Flaherty
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu>
> To: "kevin decker" <innocentwolf15 at hotmail.com>
> Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 10:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 'Iridium Flares'
>
>