[meteorite-list] Sutter's Mill/Lotus/? bolide physics at the time of breakup

[Chris Peterson]

Any energy injected into particles by some sort of explosive 
fragmentation is depleted in a second or so. All the meteorites briefly 
follow substantially parabolic paths, and then spend most of their time 
falling perfectly vertically with respect to the prevailing wind. That 
is, they carry none of their initial forward momentum during the several 
minutes they are falling.

The dynamics of the fireball and meteoroid breakup basically just 
determine where along the flight path bodies will start dropping, but 
has little effect on anything else.

Chris

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

On 4/30/2012 9:21 AM, Mendy Ouzillou wrote:
> I was curious to know if the primary bolide breakup event was explosive or
> "simple" fragmentation?
>
> By explosive I mean at the time of the breakup, energy is converted somehow
> that causes some pieces to alter their trajectory and "shoot" down to the
> ground instead of following a normal parabolic trajectory.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mendy