I don't think that fireballs explode that way. What happens is that
pressure builds up until the material strength of the meteoroid is
exceeded, and it fragments. There isn't an explosion as such (the
appearance of an explosion is largely the result of energy released when
lots of additional surface is suddenly exposed to ablation). The
fragmented components continue traveling forward with approximately
equal velocities. There's little lateral movement, and nothing ends up
traveling in the opposite direction.
In the case of a single terminal explosion, the shape and direction of
the strewn field may have more to do with upper atmosphere winds than
with the original direction of the meteor, or with the dynamics of the
breakup.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete Shugar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:45 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Further thoughts
Consider the Fireball.
When the (soon to be) meteorite explodes into a fireball, the pieces
are blown in every direction, Those blown in the direction
that the meteor came from which should give them a negative speed and
as such will start to drop first. Those in the direction of travel
give the furtherest reach from the above mentioned pieces. This will
define the outside distance of the strewnfield.
Some will be blown up and some will be blown down. I would suspect
that those that are blown downward would be the first to reach ground
as these will be accelarated and those that are blown upward must go
up before they can come down, so they should be the last to reach the
ground.
This means that the middle of the strewnfield is the first to be
populated as well as the last to be populated. The two ends fill up in
between the first and last parts of the fall.
Anyone care to check?
I don't think I missed anything, but I'm not an EXPERT, just using
deductive reasoning.
Pete
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