[meteorite-list] Vernacular of "Meteorite"

[Jeff Grossman]

Here is how Rubin and Grossman (2010) [MAPS 45, 114-122] dealt with this:

> Another difficult situation arises when considering projectiles that 
> strike a spacecraft. For example, publications reporting on the Long 
> Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), which was exposed to interplanetary 
> space in low Earth orbit for 5.75 years, generally used the term 
> meteoroid (not meteorite) to describe both the small impactors and the 
> resulting particulate debris that was collected (e.g., Clark 1984). 
> However, as pointed out by Beech and Youngblood (1994), according to 
> existing definitions, meteoroids are defined as objects moving in 
> interplanetary space and meteorites are defined as objects that have 
> reached Earth. Neither definition seems to apply to material that has 
> struck a spacecraft: that material is no longer in interplanetary 
> space as an independent body, nor has it reached Earth or any other 
> celestial body. One could quibble over whether a platform in orbit 
> around the Earth is simply an extension of Earth’s surface, but it is 
> also easy to imagine a situation where an object hits a spacecraft in 
> orbit around the Sun or traveling with sufficient velocity to escape 
> the solar system altogether. Beech and Youngblood (1994) indicated 
> that either a new definition is needed for the term meteorite or a new 
> term needs to be created to cover material that hits a spacecraft.
>
> The essential characteristic of a meteorite is that it represents 
> material that comes from one place and survives an accretionary impact 
> someplace else. In addition, the essential characteristic of a 
> meteoroid is its independent existence as a solid object in 
> interplanetary space. The most straightforward way to retain these 
> characteristics is to allow the definition of meteorite to cover 
> material that accretes to man-made objects. Returning to the LDEF 
> example, we would prefer to say that meteoroids impacted the facility 
> and that some of this material survived as small meteorites...

Jeff

>> On 8/20/2012 11:02 AM, Chris Peterson wrote:
> They might reasonably call it an anti-meteoroid shelter, but the fact 
> is, "meteorite" is not well enough defined to say that once a 
> meteoroid impacts an object in space, it can't be called a meteorite. 
> I don't have a problem with the usage in the article. Meteoroid and 
> meteorite are reasonably interchangeable in this context; the good 
> thing is that they didn't call it an anti-meteor shelter.
>
> Chris
>
> *******************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
>
> On 8/20/2012 8:54 AM, Pete Pete wrote:
>>
>> Hi, all,
>>
>> I don't recall this being discussed here before and hopefully I'm not 
>> being too anal, but is the definition of "meteorite" evolving, or is 
>> it being used improperly here (and frequently in the past when 
>> referring to the ISS and these shields).
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Pete
>>
>>
>> http://rbth.ru/articles/2012/08/20/russian_cosmonauts_to_install_anti-meteorite_shelter_on_iss_17508.html 
>>
>> http://rbth.ru/articles/2012/08/20/russian_cosmonauts_to_install_anti-meteorite_shelter_on_iss_17508.html 
>>
>>
>> Russian cosmonauts to install anti-meteorite shelter on ISS
>
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