Observational Signatures of Sub-Relativistic Meteors
Abstract
It is currently unknown whether solid particles larger than dust from supernova ejecta rain down on Earth at high speeds. We develop a hydrodynamic and radiative model to explore the detectability of 1 \; mm sub-relativistic meteors. We find that a large fraction of the meteor energy during its passage through the Earth's upper atmosphere powers the adiabatic expansion of a hot plasma cylinder, giving rise to acoustic shocks detectable by infrasound microphones. Additionally, a global network of several hundred all-sky optical cameras with a time resolution of 10-4 \;s would be capable of detecting 1 \; mm sub-relativistic meteors.
0