[meteorite-list] How much survives entry?

[Chris Peterson]

It's certainly true in the strictest sense that virtually 100% of the mass 
survives entry. However, I think most people here quite correctly 
interpreted the original question in terms of how much mass ends up as 
something you can hold in your hand at the end of the day- not dust and gas!

Chris

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


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Dunklee" <sdunklee72520 at yahoo.com>
To: "meteorite list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; "Chris Peterson" 
<clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 7:35 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] How much survives entry?


> mass converted to light would require fusion. all of the mass of a 
> meteorite is retained by the earth. most is dust from ablation. how much 
> reaches the ground depends on a lot of variables like velocity of impact 
> angle of impact, specific gravity of meteorite, water content or volatile 
> gas content of meteorite. even the humidity of the air or density of ion 
> count in the magnetosphere. in most cases all of the meteorite vaporises. 
> or explodes. from impact with the ionosphere. its very thin but like 
> hitting a brick wall at 17kmph. so saying how much is going to survive is 
> like asking how many licks it will take to get to the center of a 
> tootsiepop lol