Sputtering as It Is Related to Hyperbolic Meteorites

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Abstract
A theoretical discussion is presented of the phenomenon of cathode sputtering as it is related to high-speed meteorites, i.e., to meteorites whose speeds are high enough to have reached the Earth from interstellar space. The drag and heat transfer are found to be markedly affected by sputtering, even when the most conservative estimates of sputtering-yield and energy-transfer efficiency are employed. The paper shows that theoretically sputtering can account in part, at least, for the discrepancy between meteor photographs, which show no extra-solar meteorites, and certain visual-telescopic data which, on the contrary, show a significant number of meteorites to have an extra-solar origin.