Abstract
THE Goose Lake meteorite was sitting on the surface of the Earth when found1 and had no apparent crater associated with its impact. The absence of a crater undoubtedly means that the vertical component of velocity at the time of impact was extremely small. While a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit with grazing incidence is a theoretical possibility, the probability of such a meteoroid trajectory is relatively low. Furthermore, no impact scars are found1 on the meteorite, as might be expected if it had struck the Earth's surface with an appreciable horizontal component of velocity. Krinov2 indicates that those Sikhote–Alin fragments that had a mass about equal to the mass of the Goose Lake meteorite produced impact craters approximately 10 m in diameter. The Sikhote–Alin meteoroid entered the Earth's atmosphere with a velocity of 14.5 km/sec, a relatively low velocity for incoming meteoroids.
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References
Butler, C. P., Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 32, 291 (1963).
Krinov, E. L., in The Moon, Meteorites and Comets, edit. by Middlehurst, B. M., and Kuiper, G. P., 208 (Univ. Chicago Press, 1963).
Butler, C. P. (submitted to Meteoritics)
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Macklin, W. C., and Ludlam, F. H., Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 87, 72 (1961).
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COOK, C., BUTLER, C. Origin of the Goose Lake Meteorite. Nature 206, 704–705 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/206704a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/206704a0
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