Meteoroids captured into Earth orbit by grazing atmospheric encounters

Details Meteoroids captured into Earth orbit by grazing atmospheric encounters Meteoroids captured into Earth orbit by grazing atmospheric encounters

May 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997p%26ss...45..595h&link_type=abstract

Planetary and Space Science, v. 45, p. 595-602.

Other

2

Scientific paper

Some meteoroids, such as the one that produced the daytime fireball of August 10, 1972 that passed over the western United States and the European fireball of October 13, 1990, graze the atmosphere of Earth before returning to space (at reduced speed). Other grazing meteoroids, such as Peekskill, penetrate deeper into the atmosphere and lose enough energy to plunge to ground. It is evident that if a grazing meteoroid is within some critical range of closest approach distance and speed, it is captured into a gravitationally bound orbit around Earth. It must ultimately plunge to ground after further orbital dissipation in subsequent atmospheric passages unless the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun or other intervention raise its perigee above the atmosphere. A spherical atmospheric model is used to integrate the passage of meteoroids in grazing atmospheric encounters. It is found that the corridor for capture narrows with increasing values of V∞, the approach velocity of the meteoroid prior to gravitational acceleration by Earth. As an example, if V∞ = 5 km s-1, stony meteoroids with closest-approach distances of h = 40 km above the Earth are captured if their radii, R, are between 3 and 9 m while if V∞ = 15 km s-1 and h = 40 km, they are only captured if R is between 1.5 and 2 m. Irons with V∞ = 5 km s-1 and h = 40 km, are captured if R is between 1 and 3.5 m, while if V∞ = 15 km s-1, they are captured if R is between 0.6 and 0.9 m. The cross section for orbital capture of iron meteoroids and small stony meteoroids is about 0.001 that for directly hitting Earth. Large stones are never captured except at very low impact velocities because of the large increase in drag resulting from fragmentation.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Meteoroids captured into Earth orbit by grazing atmospheric encounters does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Meteoroids captured into Earth orbit by grazing atmospheric encounters, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Meteoroids captured into Earth orbit by grazing atmospheric encounters will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1247411