(meteorobs) RE: Meteor picture from Mars?

Bias, Peter V pbias at flsouthern.edu
Fri Jun 10 15:55:46 EDT 2005


Jeremie (and others),

I feel a little shy about asking this question because no one has
brought it up during the many days this has been discussed, but can you
perhaps explain why the meteor is so odd looking?  For instance, it is
very bright just as it hits the atmosphere, barely fades for awhile and
then appears to abruptly burn out.  This isn't the way most meteor
photos look when taken from earth.  As a matter of fact, until I saw an
accompanying arrow on a website pointing out its direction of flight I
would have thought it was traveling in the opposite direction.  And
without the inset for the original photo I couldn't even tell that it
was a meteor at all; it looks more like a short exposure of a satellite
or something. On the other hand, the magnified inset does appear more
meteor-like.  Still, it looks odd to me.  Any insight?

    Pete Bias




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