The orbit of the Dhajala meteorite

Details The orbit of the Dhajala meteorite The orbit of the Dhajala meteorite

Feb 1978

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1978icar...33..361b&link_type=abstract

Icarus, vol. 33, Feb. 1978, p. 361-367.

Computer Science

13

Descent Trajectories, Meteor Trails, Meteorites, Orbital Elements, Ablation, Atmospheric Entry, Cosmic Rays, Perihelions, Wind Effects, Meteoroids, Mass, Velocity, Trajectory, Orbits, Meteorites, Dhajala Meteorite, Observations, Atmosphere

Scientific paper

Observations of the trail caused by the meteorite which fell around Dhajala, Gujarat (India), on January 28, 1976, have been used to compute the probable orbit of the meteoroid in space. The cosmic-ray effects in the meteorite fragments indicate high mass ablation (at least about 90%), suggesting a high velocity of entry (in excess of 20 km/sec) into earth's atmosphere. The atmospheric trajectory is reasonably well documented, and its deviation from the projected ground fallout can be understood in terms of the ambient wind pattern. The apparent radiant of the trail was at a point in the sky with right ascension 165 deg, declination +60 deg. Considering the errors in estimating the radiant, a range of orbits with a semimajor axis of 2.3 + or 0.8 AU, an eccentricity of 0.6 + or - 0.1, and an inclination of 28 + or - 4 deg is obtained with the constraints of a semimajor axis of at least 1.5 AU and an entry velocity of less than 25 km/sec (which causes nearly complete evaporation of the meteoroid). Taking an entry velocity of 21.5 km/sec, as indicated by the measured mass ablation of the meteorite, the orbital elements are deduced to be a semimajor axis of 1.8 AU, an eccentricity of 0.59, an inclination of 27.6 deg, an argument of pericenter of 109.1 deg, a longitude of ascending node of 307.8 deg, and a perihelion distance of 0.74.

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