PENETRATION OF LARGE METEOROIDS INTO
THE ATMOSPHERE: THEORY AND OBSERVATIONS

I. V. Nemchinov , O. P. Popova , and
A. V. Teterev

UDC 523.68

REVIEWS

Introduction. Impacts of space bodies that bombard planets 
surrounded by an atmosphere largely govern the evolution of their 
surface and the atmosphere itself and, for the earth, its biosphere. 
When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere complex aerodynamic and
physical-gasdynamic processes occur: hypersonic flow, ablation,
the radiation of atmospheric gas heated in shock waves (in what follows,
for all planets, this gas will be referred to as simply air); the formation
of a vapor and an air-vapor mixture and their radiation, chemical reactions 
in air and the vapor, and, finally, breakup of the body itself and 
its fragments. These processes in turn govern the rate of removal 
of the space-body mass, retardation, energy release in air, the intensity 
of shock waves, luminous fluxes, etc. and ultimately affect the character 
and degree of the hazard to mankind due to asteroids and comets [1, 2].

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