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Re: (meteorobs) Hot Meteorite
Dear meteorobs,
I have two items to add on the current thread just to update facts:
Though not a matter of science, the woman hit by a meteorite was Mrs. H. C.
Hodges of Alabama (I am pretty sure of the state but I am away from my
records at the moment). I have never met her but I did once, while
lecturing on meteors in NC, meet a gentlemen who worked with her husband at
the plant.
As to meteor explosions, they are driven not by internal pressure due to
heat, but rather by external pressures due to the shock wave of atmospheric
reentry and the explosion occurs when the asymmetric forces due to pressure
exceed the structural limits of the body. A meteors that explodes could
still be "hot" and indeed many if not all exploding meteors probably are. I
only mean to point out that internal heat is not a requirement of nor even
a partial cause of explosions.
Clear skies,
Terry
*****************************************
Terry Richardson
Department of Physics and Astronomy
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
pager #937-1048
843 953-8071 phone
843 953-4824 fax
http://www.cofc.edu/~richardt/
Office Location: Science Center Room 102
Packages must be shipped to:
Terry Richardson
College of Charleston Dept. of Physics
58 Coming St., room 101
Charleston, SC 29424
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