Tonight I saw two huge greenish colored meteors. They looked like huge chunks falling, rather than the usual little flash of light. So bright they lit up everything around me.
Is there a shower going on that I dont know about? What could cause a meteor to look green?
2007-07-15 22:36:31 · 5 answers · asked by evo741hpr3 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It was pretty neat looking, I live in rural Arkansas.
I am usually up late working and I go outside to smoke. I see lots of them but these really stood out from the rest due to their size.
2007-07-15 22:53:08 · update #1
Chemicals? Atoms? Generated heat? That sounds really pretty. What state/country were you in?
2007-07-15 22:45:56 · answer #1 · answered by Luxurious 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What you saw was probably a fireball or bolide: an extremely bright meteor caused by a larger meteoroid than usual. These are usually sporadic meteors, in other words not part of any particular meteor shower. Nowadays a lot of them are caused by space junk deorbiting, which you can usually spot because it moves slower than a typical meteor and often breaks up into smaller chunks. But natural fireballs can occur too; I started observing when there was very little man-made space debris, and saw fireballs quite often. Always a spectacular sight!
The green colour would be caused by some particular spectral emission, perhaps oxygen.
2007-07-16 02:02:41 · answer #2 · answered by GeoffG 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The shower that is happening right now is called a Lyrids shower. What made it bright and green I don't know, but could be just the way they burned upon entry.
Here is a site with some info on the different showers:
http://www.theskyscrapers.org/meteors/
2007-07-15 22:51:07 · answer #3 · answered by Twisted Maggie 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Meteors with high copper contacts are make for green fireballs.
2007-07-16 05:28:21 · answer #4 · answered by Nomadd 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Please do not smoke!
2007-07-16 03:14:27 · answer #5 · answered by Ginny2233 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋