Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 August 17 
Posted on 08/17/2016 6:34:21 AM PDT by ThomasMore
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 August 17
Explanation: What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy last Friday, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, a sand-sized rock from deep space crossed right in front of our Milky Way Galaxy's far-distant companion. The small meteor took only a fraction of a second to pass through this 10-degree field. The meteor flared several times while braking violently upon entering Earth's atmosphere. The green color was created, at least in part, by the meteor's gas glowing as it vaporized. Although the exposure was timed to catch a Perseids meteor, the orientation of the imaged streak seems a better match to a meteor from the Southern Delta Aquariids, a meteor shower that peaked a few weeks earlier.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
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Green flame usually indicates COPPER, so it could have been a piece of space junk with electrical contact materials.....................
Beautiful thing to take my mind off of things.......
GO TRUMP!
; )
“a sand-sized rock”
==
Amazing how a tiny incoming can put on such a great show. Thanks for this pic o the day.
Actually not in this case.
In meteors, it indicates speed. Blue is the fastest, red the slowest.
Meteors don’t oxidize, like wood in a fire. They just heat up to a melting point and vaporize. The faster they are coming in, the closer to blue they get.
I saw an Orange one a few years ago. We were at our dark sky site and it started off as a nice meteor, then, it flared out and turned Orange! It was seen all over South Georgia and North Florida.
http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/meteor.html
Colors of meteors The color of many Leonids is caused by light emitted from metal atoms from the meteoroid (blue, green, and yellow) and light emitted by atoms and molecules of the air (red). The metal atoms emit light much like in our sodium discharge lamps: sodium (Na) atoms give an orange-yellow light, iron (Fe) atoms a yellow light, magnesium (Mg) a blue-green light, ionized calcium (Ca+) atoms may add a violet hue, while molecules of atmospheric nitrogen (N2) and oxygen atoms (O) give a red light. The meteor color depends on whether the metal atom emissions or the air plasma emissions dominate.
Now, see, that is different that what I was taught.
Learn something new every day!.
Thanks.
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