Related papers: Are some meteoroids rubble piles?
There is an unceasing incoming flux of extraterrestrial materials reaching the Earth's atmosphere. Some of these objects produce luminous columns when they ablate during the hypersonic encounter with air molecules. A few fireballs occur…
Previously unknown asteroid P/2010 A2 rose to prominence in 2010 by forming a transient, comet-like tail consisting of ejected dust. The observed dust production was interpreted as either the result of a hypervelocity impact with a smaller…
High entry speed (> 25 km/s) and low density (< 2500 kg/m3) are two factors that lower the chance of a meteoroid to drop meteorites. The 26 g carbonaceous (CM2) meteorite Maribo recovered in Denmark in 2009 was delivered by a superbolide…
Most asteroids with a diameter larger than $\sim 300 \ {\rm m}$ are rubble piles i.e. consisting of more than one solid object. All asteroids are rotating but almost all asteroids larger than $\sim 300 \ {\rm m}$ rotate with a period longer…
The orbital evolution of particles released from the surface of a rubble-pile body by Earth's tides during flyby within the Roche limit is studied. Test particles initially placed on the surface leave the surface and escape the parent body.…
Small asteroids and large meteoroids frequently impact the Earth, though their physical and material properties remain poorly understood. When observed as fireballs in Earth's atmosphere, these properties can be inferred from their ablation…
In February 15 2013 a medium-sized meteoroid impacted the atmosphere in the region of Chelyabinsk, Russia. After its entrance to the atmosphere and after travel by several hun- dred of kilometers the body exploded in a powerful event…
Asteroid 2008TC3 was a Near Earth Asteroid that impacted the Earth on 2008 October 7. Meteorites were produced by the break-up of 2008TC3 in the high atmosphere and at present, about 600 meteorites - called Almahata Sitta - coming from…
We investigate the conditions under which Leonid meteoroids might generate short duration (burster) electrophonic sounds. A `first order' theory is employed to estimate the approximate electron number density in the meteoroid ablation…
The extraordinary weather conditions available between February and March 2022 over Spain have allowed us to analyze the brightest fireballs recorded by the monitoring stations of the Spanish Meteor Network (SPMN). We study the atmospheric…
Asteroids and meteorites provide key evidence on the formation of planetesimals in the Solar System. Asteroids are traditionally thought to form in a bottom-up process by coagulation within a population of initially km-scale planetesimals.…
Conventional meteoroid theory assumes that the dominant mode of ablation is by evaporation following intense heating during atmospheric flight. In this paper we consider the question of whether sputtering may provide an alternative…
This concept article discusses the possibilities for identifying sedimentary-origin meteorites. The paper concerns (i) the macroscopic candidate for sedimentary meteorite in the epicenter of the 1908 Tunguska catastrophe; (ii) potential…
Meteor clusters are typically defined as groups of meteors that appear close together in both space and time. To date, only a handful of such events have been recorded instrumentally and analysed in detail. In many documented cases, thermal…
Many existing optical meteor trajectory estimation methods use the approximation that the velocity of the meteor at the beginning of its luminous phase is equivalent to its velocity before atmospheric entry. Meteoroid kinetic energy loss…
Impact ejecta with velocities exceeding the escape velocity of planetary bodies become meteorites and dust particles in interplanetary space. We present a new method that allows simultaneous measurement of the size and velocity of the…
As of today, there is no official definition of a meteor cluster. It is usually identified as a large number of meteors sharing a similar radiant and velocity, all occurring within a few seconds. Only eight clusters have been reported so…
On June 2, 2016 at 10h56m UTC, a $-20.4 \pm 0.2$ magnitude superbolide was observed over Arizona. Fragments were located a few days later and the meteorites were given the name Dishchii'bikoh. We present analysis of this event based on 3…
We report on observations of near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We have spent 19.9 h of observing time with channel 2 (4.5 {\mu}m) of the Infrared Array Camera and detected the target within the 2{\sigma}…
By using recent observations of the Dydimos-Dimorphos system from the Hubble Space Telescope, 37 boulders with a size of 4 to 7 meters ejected from the system during the impact with the DART spacecraft were identified. In this work, we…