[meteorite-list] Dumb Questions About Meteors & Meteorites

From: Gary Fujihara <fujmon_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:43:11 -1000
Message-ID: <D1D0AF83-598C-4354-87A8-48CBD2881866_at_mac.com>

Aloha Eric,

> I think it's the smoke left from the meteoroid as it cooled rapidly after incandescence, hence the reason for the tapering of the train.

No smoke train in this photo - it is too early for any to develop (see Chris' post)

> Also there is a certain "squiggly" nature to the trail suggesting an irregularly shaped object tumbling through the air. If it were still incandescent or in an oriented flight I would think the meteoroid would be flying a straighter path producing a "cleaner" trail. The irregular path, and tapering of the trail seems to me to suggest that the small thin trail is a smoke train and and not the meteoroid incandescence. Perhaps both?

Squiggly line is the last bit of material after ablation and just before dark flight, of a particle (from Comet Temple-Tuttle) tumbling through the air.

> Was the meteoroid still "glowing" hot thereby producing a visible light bright enough to be picked up by the camera?

Yup.

gary

>
> Eric
>
>
>
>
> On 1/26/2010 8:13 AM, GeoZay at aol.com wrote:
>>>> Take a look at this Leonid photo. As you can see after the incandescence
>>>>
>> there's a small smoke train shooting out from the tip of the meteor. Is
>> that in fact the smoke train from the particle/meteoroid just before
>> entering dark flight? Or was this just the last bit of the meteoroid
>> burning up?<<
>>
>> I'd say it was just the last bit of the meteoroid burning up. It was
>> dimming and the camera caught what little exposure it could at that point.
>> GeoZay
>>
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Gary Fujihara
Big Kahuna Meteorites (IMCA#1693)
105 Puhili Place, Hilo, Hawai'i 96720
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Received on Tue 26 Jan 2010 12:43:11 PM PST