[meteorite-list] Temperature of meteorites

[Chris Peterson]

I'd be very cautious with reports of perceived meteorite temperatures. How 
we feel temperature depends on many factors- the actual temperature of the 
object, of course, but also the temperature of our skin, the ambient air 
temperature, and perhaps most important, the thermal conductivity of the 
object.

I think that in the majority of cases, the surface of the meteorite will be 
fairly close to ambient temperature- probably not more than ten degrees 
either way- which means that people will tend to be very poor estimators of 
temperature.

Chris

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


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu>
To: <bernd.pauli at paulinet.de>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 3:46 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Temperature of meteorites


Thanks Bernd:

This will help a lot!

My guess is that "warm" means warmer than the air temperature, but
probably not much warmer than body temperature since even 15 to 20 degrees
Centigrade (125 to 135 degrees F) is considered hot.

Given that some have been said to be frosty, and one always hears that
they are the temperature of space, how many of the "hot" ones might
actually be too cold to handle? Maybe that is the myth! I am very
surprised that anything small that has had a chance to cool down in the
atmosphere would still be to hot to handle on the ground.

I guess I will just have to wait and see my own Fall and pick it up quickly!

I wish I could find the old Lost City fall picture of the meteorite in
snow. I do not remember seeing any melted snow around it, but it must have
been warm enough to attract a dog.

Larry