David I believe meteors have to have a certain mass before they make it all the way to earth without burning up all of their material. Perhaps if the shuttle had decenagrated any sooner, there is a good chance nothing would have made it. Patrick, Kim or Chuck could probably shed light on that. Jim David Dunn <david.dunn@albertsons.com> wrote:We should drop the bowling ball out at 300,000 feet at mach 18. Brent, will your plane go that fast? I would be surprised if anything made it all the way back to earth. I am surprised they found a lot of the stuff they found in Texas.-----Original Message----- From: Jim Gibson [mailto:xajax99@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 4:01 PM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Searching for debris Here is another one. The bowling ball idea is sounding better all the time. HOUSTON -- Columbia investigators are looking for help from experts who track meteors entering Earth's atmosphere so they can better predict where in the California mountains a potentially telling piece of debris from the doomed shuttle might have landed. NASA (news - web sites) officials are interested in finding the material because it could help pinpoint what part of Columbia's heat shield failed first and allowed superhot plasma to flow into the spacecraft. It is belived this eventually led to the break up of the vehicle and loss of seven astronauts. So far there has been no luck locating any confirmed pieces of debris west of Texas despite hundreds of reports, NASA officials said Tuesday. But in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California there is strong hope that one or two larger pieces of debris, perhaps a reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel from the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, might be sitting among the trees. Several eyewitnesses in the area saw Columbia fly overhead on Feb. 1 and saw one or two large pieces fall in flames away from the vehicle, followed by several relatively tiny pieces of debris. A few moments later, residents throughout the mountain range heard sonic booms and strong rumbling noises much like thunder, said Doug Kohl, a former shuttle engineer who now lives among the Sierra Nevada mountains. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day