[meteorite-list] Meteorite Doubting Thomas

[Mike Fowler]

>

> I have problems with the meteorite theory:
> 1. Meteorites, as this List knows, come in cold, not hot enough to  
> make the water in the crater "boiling", as several witnesses stated.
> 2. Meteorites usually travel a long distance from where the glowing  
> meteor is first seen. If the locals saw the bolide, chances are  
> good whatever they saw fell a long distance away, not close enough  
> for them to get there soon after it fell.
> 3. Speaking of rocks, by now, everyone in every little hamlet knows  
> that there are crazy people out there who pay big money for  
> meteorites. If there was a "shower of rocks" associated with the  
> fall, how come none of the other purported meteorites have been  
> recovered?
> 4. I await the analysis of a real meteorite specialist, not a  
> geologist, not a vulcanologist, and not media speculation! No  
> reputable scientist from outside Peru has so far investigated the  
> crater or seen the alleged meteorite fragments.
> 5. The sickness associated with the crater is a likely red herring,  
> and unrelated to a real meteorite.
>
> My 2 centavos.
> Tracy Latimer


Tracy,

Point one:

Meteorites may be cold, but when the several hundred kilograms (or  
more) of mass comes to a complete stop from a speed of hundreds of KM  
per hour, most of the kinetic heat of motion is turned into heat.   
You do the math, but if hitting a hammer on an anvil can make it hot,  
just think of something thousands of times heavier, and thousands of  
times more velocity and the result is obvious!

Point two:

Small meteorites loose their cosmic velocity miles high, and and the  
rest of their fall is dark.  A very large meteor will retain a  
substantial amount of its cosmic velocity until impact.  Why should  
it not be incandescent up untill the moment of impact?

Mike Fowler

Chicago