[meteorite-list] Updated Lorton trajectory

[Shawn Alan]

Rob,

That's great news that 2 images were taken of the meteorite trail. I had speculated that if there were more fragments that fallen from the Lorton meteorite they might have fallen on the military base and you confirmed it with the 2 images. Great work Rob.

Shawn 
 
 
[meteorite-list] Updated Lorton trajectoryRob Matson mojave_meteorites at cox.net 
Wed Jan 27 04:13:46 EST 2010 


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Hi All, 

I finally received a good second image of the Lorton bolide smoke 
trail taken immediately after the fall (and before upper atmospheric 
winds distorted it). More importantly, the two images I have were 
taken from sufficiently different vantage points that a good 3D 
solution could be computed. (My early, somewhat hurried "first-cut" 
at the trajectory was based on only a single image, and a cobbling 
together of 50+ witness reports.) That first solution wasn't bad 
as far as the flight direction (NNE -> SSW); however, as steep as 
I made the entry angle, I didn't make it steep enough. 

The Lorton meteoroid entered at a surprisingly steep angle -- about 
15 degrees from vertical! If upper atmospheric winds had been 
light, this would have made for a very tight strewnfield. But 
those winds were anything but light at the time of the fall. For 
instance, at 11-km altitude, the jet stream was over 90 knots! 
Even down at 5-km altitude, the wind was over 40 knots. 

So here are my new impact predictions as a function of mass. 
The distance and bearing columns are in miles and degrees, 
respectively, relative to the impact coordinates of the 308-gram 
mass: 

Mass Longitude Latitude Distance Bearing 
----- --------- -------- -------- ------- 
3 g -77.1383 38.7130 4.05 77.9 
10 g -77.1635 38.7104 2.68 75.5 
30 g -77.1804 38.7077 1.75 74.0 
100 g -77.1976 38.7043 0.80 71.8 
300 g -77.2116 38.7007 -0- N/A 
1 kg -77.2282 38.6965 0.94 252.1 
3 kg -77.2415 38.6923 1.72 250.2 
10 kg -77.2560 38.6874 2.57 249.0 

As before, these coordinates (when you connect the dots) trace 
out a curve of the estimated strewn field centerline. Unfortunately, 
the lightest (and presumably more numerous) fragments would have 
been windblown onto Ft. Belvoir. But there is still some room ENE 
of the doctor's office that is not on military land, and plenty 
of real estate in the "heavy direction" (WSW) if you're feeling 
lucky. --Rob 






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