I saw a very fast, very bright meteor over NE Ohio last night around 8PM. I had just gotten home and stepped back out to the car to get my backpack and other stuff and it was a bright neon green color for all of about 2 seconds - so fast that I would otherwise have missed it. Beautiful - but pure luck.
I know the there is a shower coming up shortly and stayed looking around to see if anymore would show up. Don’t get many viewing days during most of the routine showers due to cloud cover here - last night was clear and bright for a change.
Reported colors range across the spectrum, from red to bright blue, and (rarely) violet.
The dominant composition of a meteoroid can play an important part in the observed colors of a fireball, with certain elements displaying signature colors when vaporized.
For example, sodium produces a bright yellow color, nickel shows as green, and magnesium as blue-white.
The velocity of the meteor also plays an important role, since a higher level of kinetic energy will intensify certain colors compared to others.
Among fainter objects, it seems to be reported that slow meteors are red or orange, while fast meteors frequently have a blue color, but for fireballs the situation seems more complex than that, but perhaps only because of the curiosities of color vision as mentioned above. ...”
https://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/faqf/#5
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“The color of light that the meteors produce depends on their chemical composition,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Dave Samuhel said.
“Different chemicals in the meteors produce different colors as they burn up while entering the Earth’s atmosphere,” Samuhel said.
For example, meteors made from primarily calcium will give off a purple or violet color, while those made out of magnesium will appear to have a green or teal color.
What a meteor is made out of is not the only factor that determines the color that it appears. The speed at which the meteor enters the Earth’s atmosphere can also affect the color.
The faster a meteor moves, the more intense the color may appear, according to the American Meteorological Society (AMS).
“Among fainter objects, it seems to be reported that slow meteors are red or orange, while fast meteors frequently have a blue color,” the AMS said.
The Geminid Meteor Shower, one of the best meteor showers of the year, is a shower known for producing intensely colored meteors, Samuhel said.
The Geminids peak in mid-December.
The most common colors for this specific meteor shower are yellow, orange and sometimes green. ..."
https://www.accuweather.com/en/space-news/why-do-meteors-glow-in-vibrant-colors/433610
Green? Cupro-nickel composition.
CC