Motion of a Fragment in Disturbed Air Behind a Meteor Body

Extract

Even if we use the classical physical theory of meteors, there may still be some possibility for agreement between observations and theory. The effect of disturbed air behind the main body on the motion and ablation of fragments has not yet been considered. This effect may have important consequences, observed partly as the difference between the photometrically and the dynamically determined masses of the meteor body. By use of extreme mathematical conditions, this difference can be made to reach orders of magnitude during the latter part of the trajectory. However, the physical interpretation is considered only roughly in this paper, and the computed model needs further improvement. But the main purpose here—finding an important effect for the explanation of the discrepancy between the dynamic and the photometric masses, especially for large bodies—has been achieved.