On Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:02:38 -0500, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"Gunner" wrote...
On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:03:55 -0600, Ignoramus15027 wrote:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/27/world/...eor/?hpt=hp_t2
Margaret Campbell-Brown, an astronomer at Canada's University of
Western Ontario, says that the Russian meteor was "56 feet (17
meters)
across, weighed more than 700,000 tons and was moving about 18
kilometers per second (40,000 mph) when it blew apart, she said."
What her saying implies is that, if the meteor was a cube 17x17x17
meters, which is the largest object of 17 meters in size, then its
density was 142 tons per cubic meter.
For comparison, gold is only 20 tons per cubic meter.
I just read an estimate that works out to density of around 4,
assuming it's a 17m sphere which is ~half (pi/6) the volume of a 17m
cube. That suggests it is either a mix of rock and iron, or titanium.
Articles about fragments from the meteor say the fragments are about
10% iron.
"Grokhovsky said the particles were composed of metallic iron as well
as chrysolite and sulfite. While another report in the Inquisitr
quoting the same official said the rock is made up of €śordinary
chondrite.€ť" See [1] (which plays a video that says 10% iron)
"Viktor Grokhovsky, who led the expedition from Urals Federal University,
said Monday that 53 fragments of the meteor have been plucked from the
ice-covered Chebarkul Lake. He said they are less than a centimeter
(half an inch) in size, about 10 percent iron, and belong to the chondrite
type, the most common variation of meteorites found on Earth." See [2]
[1]http://www.ibtimes.com/russian-meteor-shower-2013-scientists-discover-meteor-fragments-chebarkul-lake-1090774
[2]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/russian-meteor-fragments-chelyabinsk-space-rock_n_2712589.html
[3]http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chondrule
--
jiw