Recent content by Zorwell

  1. Z

    Why did the Chelyabinsk Meteor Explode?

    Thanks Simon, I really appreciate the blow-by-blow clarification. Essentially the light is produced by the heating of the material of the material and the air around it and the rapid increase in the size and brightness of the fireball is due to the increase in heat produced by rapid slowing in...
  2. Z

    Chelyabinsk Meteor Shockwave 2/15/2013

    Is fragmentation alone enough to cause the rapid transition from a burning meteor streaking through the sky leaving something like a contrail to the rapid increase in size and brightness that we saw? The amount of light produced and the size of the "explosion" (variously estimated from 0.1 to...
  3. Z

    Why did the Chelyabinsk Meteor Explode?

    Sure, even a water heater can explode, but such an explosion doesn't produce light. My question is, what is the physical process by which the kinetic energy of the meteor is converted into light? Is it rapid combustion of atomized (or very small particles) of the material of the meteor? So...
  4. Z

    Chelyabinsk Meteor Shockwave 2/15/2013

    Of course it's the kinetic energy but what specifically causes the fireball as opposed to the meteor just ablating down to nothing? Even if the meteor breaks up that doesn't mean that it will become a fireball. What the videos showed was an abrupt increase in the brightness of the...
  5. Z

    Why did the Chelyabinsk Meteor Explode?

    Why did the meteor explode? What specifically caused the fireball (the abrupt increase in brightness) for example? That is, what is the physics behind such a fireball versus one that just ablates and burns down to nothing? Meteors are made up of materials we do not normally consider explosive...
  6. Z

    Chelyabinsk Meteor Shockwave 2/15/2013

    Why did the meteor explode? What specifically caused the fireball (the abrupt increase in brightness) for example? That is, what is the physics behind such a fireball versus one that just ablates and burns down to nothing? Meteors are made up of materials were normally consider explosive, so...
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