Mass-height relation for antimatter meteors

A formula to compute the mass-height relation for the case of possible antimatter meteor entrance is derived.It is governed by the annihilation cross section for the atom-antiatom interactions which experimentally is unknown,and by various mechanisms which are possibly reducing its value. For the special case of thermal energies,the annihilation cross-section _an may be connected with the elastic cross-section_el by the relation % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaeq4Wdm3aaS% baaSqaaiaabggacaqGUbaabeaakiabg2da9iabeo8aZnaaBaaaleaa% caqGLbGaaeiBaaqabaGccqGHpis1caWGMbWaaSbaaSqaaiaadMgaae% qaaaaa!4227!\[\sigma _{{\rm{an}}} = \sigma _{{\rm{el}}} \prod f_i \],where the factors % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaamOzamaaBa% aaleaacaWGPbaabeaaaaa!37F1!\[f_i \]are all less or equal to unity. Among them, the most significant is the barrier factor % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaamOzamaaBa% aaleaacaWGIbaabeaaaaa!37EA!\[f_b \] _b described by many scientists, which may possibly reduce the annihilation cross-section down to lower than 10^–11 times than that of a simple elastic collision. The above formula could also be found useful, for some applications, which are currently in progress.     

Momentum loss for antimatter meteors

The momentum loss for a possible antimatter meteor entrance can be described by the combination of two terms. One which can be characterized by the mechanism of annihilation and a second one, the well known mechanism, which is common for all koinomatter (ordinary) meteors. That is, the momentum loss caused by the air molecules swept up by the moving object. We discuss, in this paper, the contribution of the rocket effect caused by the action of the secondaries which can be produced by the annihilation interactions of the antiatoms with the air molecules. The momentum loss of an iron type meteor made of antimatter, as a function of its equivalent radius R, can be described by the formula, J (MeV/c) = 8R (cm), for values of R within the range 1 cm < R < 5 cm and can be resulted by a single annihilation interaction of a nucleon-antinucleon pair.     

Lifetime of antimatter meteors

The lifetime of antimatter fragments which may enter the Earth's atmosphere in the form of meteors is determined in this paper, for cases in which the annihilation may be accompanied by the evaporation process. The antimatter object can be penetrated by the nucleon - antinucleon annihilation products, which can be generated by interactions of atoms of antimatter fragments with the atmospheric molecules. Vaporization of its own antiatoms may be followed, in case of a high rate of annihilation, so that the lifetime of the antimatter object may become shorter, compared with the case of annihilation without vapor production of the meteor. The lifetime of the antimatter fragment is dependent upon the temperature of the object and thus vaporization of such an object would last for as long as =R/, where is the intensity of evaporation, its density andR its radius.     

Annihilation of antimatter meteors

Antimatter meteors probably enter the Earth's atmosphere. If they have the ability to escape complete vaporization during their infall flight, it may be possible, that a fraction of their original mass could survive for short or long time, depending on the mechanisms of ablation. In case of ablation through the annihilation process only, the lifetime of such an object is following the simple relation = (N _L R)/(rA), where andA are the density and the atomic weight of the antimatter fragment respectively,R is its radius,r is the rate of annihilation per cm² of its surface, and N _L is the Loschmidt number.     

A note on antimatter meteors

It is argued here that unless antimatter meteors can be shown to possess some unambiguously unique characteristic not displayed by ordinary koinomatter meteors, it will be difficult to infer their existence given the standard interpretation of meteoroid structure. It is also argued, however, that the existence of antimatter meteors is extremely unlikely.     

Energy deposition in antimatter meteors

Antimatter meteors, like ordinary ones, can be heated during their infall flight. However, this could happen by a completely different process than in the case of koinomatter meteors, since in the latter case the annihilation interactions mechanism is absent. In case of antimatter meteors, the temperature may be increased mainly due to the energy deposition effect, caused by the passage of the annihilation secondaries penetrating throughout the meteor. The energy deposition of the secondary particles produced in matter antimatter annihilation interactions as a function of the dimensions of an antimatter meteor is described in this paper.     

Evidence for transverse spread in Leonid meteors

We report here evidence for significant transverse spread of the light production region in bright Leonid meteors. One Leonid meteor has an apparent spread in the light production region of about 600 m perpendicular to the flight path for the meteor, that transverse spread persisting for at least 0.3 s. We have also detected short-duration, jet-like features emanating from a bright Leonid meteor recorded in 1998. These jet-like features have maximum spatial dimensions up to 1.9 km. While we cannot definitively rule out instrumental artefacts as a cause for these jet-like features, they may be evidence of motion contributing to the observed spatial spread in the light production region.     

Television spectra of meteors

The first results of the television observations of meteors at the Ondejov Observatory are presented. It is shown that three spectral components may be distinguished in meteors: cool meteoric, hot meteoric and hot atmospheric. The intensity ratio of these components varies strongly even in meteors of the same velocity and within the records of single meteors. This is evidence for variations in the ablation process and in the formation of the shock wave. The so called calcium anomaly is in fact only a demonstration of these variations.     

Watching meteors on Triton

The thin atmosphere of Neptune's moon Triton is dense enough to ablate micrometeoroids as they pass through. A combination of Triton's orbital velocity around Neptune and its orbital velocity around the Sun gives a maximum meteoroid impact velocity of approximately 19 km s⁻¹, sufficient to heat the micrometeoroids to visibility as they enter. The ablation profiles of icy and stony micrometeoroids were calculated, along with the estimated brightness of the meteors. In contrast to the terrestrial case, visible meteors would extend very close to the surface of Triton. In addition, the variation in the meteoroid impact velocity as Triton orbits Neptune produces a large variation in the brightness of meteors with orbital phase, a unique Solar System phenomenon.     

Equations for a plasma consisting of matter and antimatter

A set of fluid type equations is derived to describe the macroscopic behaviour of a plasma consisting of a mixture of matter and antimatter. The equations are written in a form which displays the full symmetry of the medium with respect to particle charge and mass, a symmetry absent in normal plasmas. This symmetry of the equations facilitates their manipulation and solution, and by way of illustration the equations are used to analyze the propagation of electromagnetic and acoustic waves through a matter-antimatter plasma. Some differences from the propagation of such waves in a normal plasma are noted.     

Sputtering and high altitude meteors

Conventional ablation theory assumes that a meteoroid undergoes intensive heating during atmospheric flight and surface atoms are liberated through thermal processes. Our research has indicated that physical sputtering could play a significant role in meteoroid mass loss. Using a 4th order Runge-Kutta numerical integration technique, we tabulated the mass loss due to the two ablation mechanisms and computed the fraction of total mass lost due to sputtering. We modeled cometary structure meteoroids with masses ranging from 10⁻¹³ to 10⁻³ kg and velocities ranging from 11.2 to 71 km s⁻¹. Our results indicate that a significant fraction of the mass loss for small, fast meteors is due to sputtering, particularly in the early portion of the light curve. In the past 6 years evidence has emerged for meteor luminosity at heights greater than can be explained by conventional ablation theory. We have applied our sputtering model and find excellent agreement with these observations, and therefore suggest that sputtered material accounts for the new type of radiation found at great heights.     

Constraining the luminous efficiency of meteors

We propose a new approach for studying the radiation of a fireball, one of the main processes which occur when the meteor body enters the planetary atmosphere. The only quantities which directly follow from the available observations are the fireball brightness, its height above sea level, the length along the trajectory, and as a consequence its velocity as a function of time. Other important parameters like meteoroid’s mass, its shape, bulk and grain density, temperature remain unknown. The present study takes recent results in fireball aerodynamics and considers them together with the classical postulate that a fraction of the meteoroid kinetic energy is transformed into radiation during its flight. This gives us a new analytical dependence, which in particular shows that the fireball luminosity in general is proportional to the body pre-entry mass value, its initial velocity to the power of 3, and the sine of the slope between horizon and trajectory. Research helps in finding an answer to the general important question: Which fraction of the fireball kinetic energy is transformed into light during meteoroid drag and ablation in the atmosphere?     

Cosmic-ray antimatter: A primary origin hypothesis

We examine the possibility that the observed cosmic-ray protons are of primary extragalactic origin. The present \(\bar p\) data are consistent with a primary extragalactic component having \(\bar p\) /p?3.2±0.7 x 10^-4 independent of energy. Following the suggestion that most extragalactic cosmic rays are from active galaxies, we propose that most of the observed \(\bar p\) 's are alos from the same sites. This would imply the possibility of destroying the corresponding \(\bar \alpha \) 'sat the source, thus leading to a flux ratio \(\bar \alpha \) /α< \(\bar p\) /p. We further predict an estimate for \(\bar \alpha \) α～10^-5, within the range of future cosmic-ray detectors. the cosmological implications of this proposal are discussed.     

The cosmogonical separation of matter and antimatter

Alfvén has shown that in the symmetric cosmology of O. Klein, matter and antimatter can be separated as clouds of solar masses. By considering the dynamics of these clouds it is shown that a further separation process driven by the release of rest energy can separate matter on a galactic scale.Paper dedicated to Professor Hannes Alfvén on the occasion of his 70th birthday, 30 May, 1978.     

Formation of molecules in bright meteors

We calculated equilibrium chemical composition of a mixture of meteoritic vapor and air during fireball events, i.e. during penetration of large meteoroids into terrestrial atmosphere. Different types of fireballs were considered, and calculations were performed for wide ranges of temperatures and pressures. Chemical composition at the quenching point was estimated by comparison of hydrodynamic and chemical reaction time scales. For the typical fireball temperatures of 4000-5000 K, most elements are expected to be in the form of atoms and ions. Notable exceptions are Si and C, which are expected to be mainly in the form of SiO and CO. Other molecules abundant at these temperatures are N₂ and NO. Metal monoxides are most abundant at 2000-2500 K and are formed during the cooling phase. Conditions for formation of other molecules such as , CN, C₂ and OH were also considered. The composition of freshly ablated meteoroid material was studied using the MAGMA code.     

Comet Tempel-Tuttle and the Leonid meteors

The distribution of dust surrounding periodic comet Tempel-Tuttle has been mapped by analyzing the associated Leonid meteor shower data over the 902–1969 interval. The majority of dust ejected from the parent comet evolves to a position lagging the comet and outside the comet's orbit. The outgassing and dust ejection required to explain the parent comet's deviation from pure gravitational motion would preferentially place dust in a position leading the comet and inside the comet's orbit. Hence it appears that radiation pressure and planetary perturbations, rather than ejection processes, control the dynamic evolution of the Leonid particles. Significant Leonid meteor showers are possible roughly 2500 days before or after the parent comet reaches perihelion but only if the comet passes closer than 0.025 AU inside or 0.010 AU outside the Earth's orbit. Although the conditions in 1998–1999 are optimum for a significant Leonid meteor shower, the event is not certain because the dust particle distribution near the comet is far from uniform. As a by-product of this study, the orbit of comet Tempel-Tuttle has been redetermined for the 1366–1966 observed interval.     

An investigation of meteors in early April

In conducting a search through the IAU Meteor Catalogue at Lund, a peak in activity on April 8th, not corresponding to any known shower was discovered. Analysis of the orbit shows that a subset of those meteors originated on very coherent orbits. It is suggested that there could either represent a hither to unidentified stream or that they are meteoroids which, like the April Lyrids, were ejected from Comet Thatcher but have arrived onto their current orbits as a consequence primarily of Poynting - Robertson drag.     

Very precise orbits of 1998 Leonid meteors

Abstract— Seventy-five orbits of Leonid meteors obtained during the 1998 outburst are presented. Thirty-eight are precise enough to recognize significant dispersion in orbital elements. Results from the nights of 1998 November 16/17 and 17/18 differ, in agreement with the dominant presence of different dust components. The shower rate profile of 1998 November 16/17 was dominated by a broad component, rich in bright meteors. The radiant distribution is compact. The semimajor axis is confined to values close to that of the parent comet, whereas the distribution of inclination has a central condensation in a narrow range. On the other hand, 1998 November 17/18 was dominated by dust responsible for a more narrow secondary peak in the flux curve. The declination of the radiant and the inclination of the orbit are more widely dispersed. The argument of perihelion, inclination, and the perihelion distance are displaced. These data substantiate the hypothesis that trapping in orbital resonances is important for the dynamical evolution of the broad component.     

On the detectability of antimatter propulsion spacecraft

It is shown that the NASA Gamma-Ray Observatory will be able to detect large interstellar spacecraft at distances up to 300 pc by the -ray emission from the propulsion system alone. The distance limit is set by the possibility of recognizing such objects by their proper motions.