In addition, you can see the vapor trails and it's clear that at some point there was two objects. It looks to me more like a piece of the meteor fell behind after breaking up, but caught up because the main mass slowed significantly rigght before exploding, which matches standard behavior, it hit a thicker layer, caught atmosphere, slowed while creating massive friction, heated up enough to cause gas pockets to erupt. the fragment didn't go THROUGH it, it went past it on a more aerodynamic path.
On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:37 PM, Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote: > Here is an explanation for the amazing "projectile" form which is seen in > the video exiting the meteor at high speed in the forward vector - at least > this is the best explanation that I can come up with (besides a faked > video). > > The initial meteor consists of an agglomeration of two of the better known > varieties of meteors which have been bound together in space by gravity - > but they do not intermix and will be affected differently, on entering the > atmosphere. There is a large segment of a lower melting point chondrite > composition. Then there is a small nickel-iron-cobalt component - which is > much higher in melting point but will soften with heat. The large segment > enters first heats up, and essentially it melts into a thick blob - and at > the same time, it protects the smaller iron component as a heat shield, but > it decelerates rapidly on atmospheric contact. The trailing segment does > not > do the same. > > Instead the iron nickel component which is trailing, stays solid but > softens, and at some point is forced through the liquefied Chondrite blob > when it decelerates - and is extruded into a projectile shape just as if it > was a sausage going through an extrusion die. It is also accelerated by the > extrusion process - and is expelled rapidly in the forward vector. > > Michel Julian once called this type of tubular compression/acceleration the > "sphincter effect"... > > I do not think that Michel wants to be exclusively remembered on Vortex for > that bit of insight, but it may be appropriate here :) > > Jones > > >
