[meteorite-list] HUGE Meteor Sighting in Cottonwood AZ - Stats from fall

[Chris Peterson]

Ground level sonics are a very good indicator that meteorites were 
produced. However, the absence of sonics doesn't argue against 
meteorites at all.

In all likelihood, the majority of meteorite falls are not preceded with 
either a significant fireball nor any acoustics. We are subject to a 
very strong observation bias because those tend to be the only sort of 
events where we can actually correlate meteors to meteorites. And of 
course, such meteorites represent only a tiny fraction of the total.

Regardless of any other factors, fireballs that display either a massive 
terminal explosion or multiple fragmentation events along their paths 
warrant close examination as potential meteorite producers.

Chris

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

On 4/13/2014 4:47 PM, Jim Wooddell wrote:
> Hi Shawn,  This is a fairly normal event.  Nothing much to get excited
> about.  The calculation is an error.    If the 40.8km is the burn out I
> doubt anyone will waste much time on this one.
> No sonic reports to speak of and that is also not a good sign. The UT is
> questionable too!
>
> Jim