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"Holy Extraterrestrial Matter, Batman!"



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 8th 07, 02:37 PM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default "Holy Extraterrestrial Matter, Batman!"

"Although the name 'Dee Riddle' causes more than a little suspicion on
my part, Robin.":
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/0...rikes-ill-home
Okay... how exactly how can a rock falling through around fifty miles of
atmosphere end up going in any direction but pretty much straight down
by the time it impacts?

Pat

  #2  
Old March 8th 07, 04:38 PM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Allen Thomson
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Default "Holy Extraterrestrial Matter, Batman!"

On Mar 8, 7:37 am, Pat Flannery wrote:

Okay... how exactly how can a rock falling through around fifty miles of
atmosphere end up going in any direction but pretty much straight down
by the time it impacts?


It has a large ballistic coefficient? Remember, ICBM RVs with large
ballistic coefficients entering the atmosphere slower than most
meteors arrive at the surface at a considerable angle.

http://img.rtvslo.si/upload/Svet/kwajalein_show.jpg
http://www.afa.org/magazine/Oct2005/ICBM01.jpg

  #3  
Old March 8th 07, 05:31 PM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Default "Holy Extraterrestrial Matter, Batman!"



Allen Thomson wrote:
It has a large ballistic coefficient? Remember, ICBM RVs with large
ballistic coefficients entering the atmosphere slower than most
meteors arrive at the surface at a considerable angle.

http://img.rtvslo.si/upload/Svet/kwajalein_show.jpg
http://www.afa.org/magazine/Oct2005/ICBM01.jpg


Yeah, but this object is about the size of a pack of cards according to
the report, even if it's a nickel-iron, it's not going to be more than
four or five pounds in weight, and it won't be streamlined either.
The MIRVs in the photos are heavy and streamlined, and are coming in so
fast that they are ablating all the way to impact.
If it had been in anything other than free-fall, it should have blown a
hole right through the window and continued right through the desk and
floor, like a free-falling cannonball would. There are a lot of cases of
small free-falling meteorites doing considerable damage:
http://astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/h...r/strikes.html


"5. Donahue near-miss. Nov. 8, 1982, in Weathersfield,
Connecticutt. Robert and Wanda Donahue settled down for a quiet
evening watching television. About halfway through M*A*S*H, they
heard a loud crash from the front of the house. They ran into the
living room to find a hole in the ceiling and plaster dust and
smoke everywhere. Moving outside, they saw a hole in the roof.
They called the fire department and ten minutes later, a fireman
found a six-pound, five-inch meteorite under the dining room
table. The stone had ripped through the roof and living room
ceiling, bounced off a carpeted wooden floor (cracking a support
beam for the floor in the process), traveled up through the
ceiling a second time into the attic, came down through the
ceiling in the dining room, knocked over furniture and dented a
wall before coming to rest under the table. Six more small
fragments of the meteorite were later found in the Donahue's
vacuum cleaner, which Mrs. Donahue had used to tidy up the house a
bit before all the scientists and media arrived."


That's more like one would expect.
The amount of damage it did seems too small for an object in free-fall,
and it's strange angled impact with the house seems odd also. Unless it
hit something outside and then bounced through the window, I suspect
that somebody threw it through the window.
Why buy something as expensive as a meteorite just to toss it through a
window?
Simple...what do you think a meteorite with the news story about how it
hit a house would sell for on ebay?

Pat
  #4  
Old March 8th 07, 05:48 PM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Herb Schaltegger
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On Thu, 8 Mar 2007 10:31:42 -0600, Pat Flannery wrote
(in article ):

Yeah, but this object is about the size of a pack of cards according to
the report, even if it's a nickel-iron, it's not going to be more than
four or five pounds in weight, and it won't be streamlined either.
The MIRVs in the photos are heavy and streamlined, and are coming in so
fast that they are ablating all the way to impact.
If it had been in anything other than free-fall, it should have blown a
hole right through the window and continued right through the desk and
floor, like a free-falling cannonball would.


Of course it was in free-fall, Pat. What else would it be? ;-)


Unless it
hit something outside and then bounced through the window, I suspect
that somebody threw it through the window.


I suspect it came in at an angle because it entered the atmosphere at an
angle, and that it may well have clipped a tree nearby.



--
You can run on for a long time,
Sooner or later, God'll cut you down.
~Johnny Cash

  #5  
Old March 8th 07, 11:29 PM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default "Holy Extraterrestrial Matter, Batman!"



Herb Schaltegger wrote:

Of course it was in free-fall, Pat. What else would it be? ;-)

It will be slowed by the atmosphere till it reaches terminal velocity.
Maybe if it was odd shaped enough it might start gliding sideways to
some extent as it descended, but I can't picture it doing that well
enough to come flying through a window into a room


Unless it
hit something outside and then bounced through the window, I suspect
that somebody threw it through the window.


I suspect it came in at an angle because it entered the atmosphere at an
angle, and that it may well have clipped a tree nearby.


Something that low in weight would lose all of its latent horizontal
velocity long before impact. Any horizontal velocity would have to be
due to some aerodynamic effect on it as it fell at its terminal
velocity, and although I can picture it coming down in a spiral of some
sort, as it spun on its axis (in fact that would be very likely one
would think, unless it was a perfect disc, sphere, teardrop, or some
other smooth and symmetrical aerodynamic form) I don't think its going
to come down at a angle that let it build up any significant horizontal
velocity unless it grew a vertical fin to keep it straight and gliding
in one direction.
Now if it hit something and bounced off before going through the window,
that would make sense.
If it hit a inclined surface at high speed (like a tree's inclined
trunk), that could slow it and get it going sideways both at once.
There's a good photo of it he
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/met...166842929.html
Here's another shot, showing its size and that it's basically disc
shaped: http://www.fox28.com/Images/030707meteor.jpg


Pat
 




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