Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

Interesting-Ad7020 t1_j9xw0s8 wrote

https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/ it is possible to get meteorites from other planets that have been flung up from an impact of another meteorite. If the impackt was great enough to make the residu to leave its gravitational grip of its planet

2

Nosferatu-87 t1_j9xvmpa wrote

Do you mean hitting the surface and bouncing off or just hitting the atmosphere and skipping off?

1

khukharev OP t1_j9xvtvm wrote

Honestly, I am not sure what options could realistically be, so let’s treat it as “all of the above”. The one I had in mind was mostly about surface contact at an angle that allows for ricochet. But ricocheting off atmosphere could be an interesting option too.

1

polaroppositebear t1_j9xx1n8 wrote

Something would have to be going incredibly fast and be massive enough not to have it's momentum reduced by the impact, at which point it would probably just sheer off a chunk of earth as it kept going.

Atmosphere will do nothing but slow an object down, increasing its odds of slamming into earth. Our planet is pretty soft so the chance of a ricochet like a bullet off a steel plate is very low.

Edit: also, once a meteorite is deep enough in earth's gravity well it won't be able to escape without some form of propulsion.

1

space-ModTeam t1_j9xxzxl wrote

Hello u/khukharev, your submission "Is it possible (at least theoretically) for an meteorite to ricochet from Earth instead of exploding? Are there any known cases (even if not on Earth)?" has been removed from r/space because:

  • Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

1

stromm t1_j9xy89j wrote

LOTS of meteors skip off the Earth’s atmosphere. But not the tiny or very large ones.

Tiny can’t maintain enough kinetic energy because the atmospheric resistance slows them down too much. Very large (and I would guess that’s more than 100lbs, since most meteorites are below a pound) are more affected by gravity pulling them deeper into the atmosphere, which then slows them down.

The in between come in at a very shallow angle. Not close enough for gravity to pull deeper, so they only graze the top much less dense part of our atmosphere. So they skip off.

1