Meteoritic dust from the atmospheric disintegration of a large meteoroid

Andrew R. Klekociuk (), Peter G. Brown, Dee W. Pack, Douglas O. ReVelle, W. N. Edwards, Richard E. Spalding, Edward Tagliaferri, Bernard B. Yoo and Joseph Zagari
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Andrew R. Klekociuk: Australian Antarctic Division
Peter G. Brown: University of Western Ontario
Dee W. Pack: The Aerospace Corporation
Douglas O. ReVelle: Los Alamos National Laboratory
W. N. Edwards: University of Western Ontario
Richard E. Spalding: Sandia National Laboratory
Edward Tagliaferri: The Aerospace Corporation
Bernard B. Yoo: The Aerospace Corporation
Joseph Zagari: Australian Antarctic Division

Nature, 2005, vol. 436, issue 7054, 1132-1135

Abstract: Fate of a fireball Most of the mass of a meteoroid goes up (or comes down) in smoke: the largest of them can reach the ground but only 1–25% of the initial mass ever gets that far. The mystery of what happens to the rest can at last be addressed by direct observation, because one of the largest meteoroids to have entered the atmosphere during the past decade was caught in the act. As it disintegrated over Antarctica on 3 September last year, space-based infrared and light sensors detected the fireball and an 8-km-long debris trail. Spectral properties of this meteoric smoke reveal dust similar to olivine, a silicate mineral common in meteorites. Most of the dust consisted of particles about a thousandth of a millimetre in diameter, much larger than those normally regarded as being produced by atmospheric disintegration of rocky bodies.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03881

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