New Constraints on the Composition and Initial Speed of CNEOS 2014-01-08
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
2022-04-21 v2
Abstract
We study the newly released light curve from the fireball of the first interstellar meteor CNEOS 2014-01-08. The measured velocity and three observed flares down to an altitude of imply ambient ram pressure in the range of MPa when the meteor disintegrated. The required yield strength is times higher than stony meteorites and times larger than iron meteorites. The implied slowdown in the atmosphere suggests an initial speed of about , strengthening the case for an interstellar origin of this meteor and making it an outlier relative to the velocity dispersion of local stars.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2204.08482,
title = {New Constraints on the Composition and Initial Speed of CNEOS 2014-01-08},
author = {Amir Siraj and Abraham Loeb},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.08482},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
5 pages, 1 figure; accepted for publication in RNAAS