[meteorite-list] Meteoroid/Asteroid Electro-Magnetic Disruption and Charge Properties?

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Carl-

For the most part, breakup characteristics don't correlate well with 
either size or material. I think it's largely a matter of the bulk 
properties of the meteoroid- how monolithic versus faulted it is- and 
any material can exist on a wide range between those extremes.

For the most part, I'd say if there's any "sweet-spot", it is largely 
determined by the same factors that have been seen as key for a long 
time- a shallow entry angle, low entry speed, and low altitude terminal 
explosion all bode well for meteorite production. Of course, larger 
bodies have more material, and might well be expected to yield more 
meteorites under equivalent entry conditions. But that's a very broad 
generalization. I think that the nature of the terminal explosion of 
Chelyabinsk resulted in such tiny fragmentation that something in excess 
of 99% of the initial mass was lost. A somewhat stronger body of the 
same size might have survived a little longer, slowing enough that the 
disruption would be less violent, and a lot more could survive. Consider 
that Sikhote-Alin was a smaller body, but much more material survived to 
the ground- both because it was materially stronger, and because it 
didn't explode until it was much lower.

Chris

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

On 2/27/2013 10:42 AM, Carl Agee wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> Do you have any references you could point me to for how break-up
> scales with size-mass-physical properties etc. of meteoroids. I am
> interested in knowing the "sweet-spot" for yielding meteorites on the
> ground. In other words, when is a meteoroid too small or too big to
> produce significant large pieces of surviving material? It seems like
> Chelyabinsk is outside the sweet spot as it apparently produced mostly
> fragments even though it had large mass. On the other hand much bigger
> masses may also survive. Is it bimodal?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Carl Agee
>
>