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, [email protected] 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 >> >> ______________________________________________ >> Visit the Archives at >> http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html >> Meteorite-list mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list >> >> > ______________________________________________ > Visit the Archives at > http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html > Meteorite-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Gary Fujihara Big Kahuna Meteorites (IMCA#1693) 105 Puhili Place, Hilo, Hawai'i 96720 http://bigkahuna-meteorites.com/ http://shop.ebay.com/fujmon/m.html (808) 640-9161 ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
