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Re: (meteorobs) Fireball mags...
Bob's last comment was:
>By the way, the train on that Perseid lasted 13 minutes (naked eye) and
would >have lasted longer had it not drifted into the cone of zodiacal light.
Bob, what composes those trails, particularly the really long-lasting ones?
Are they vapor trails similar to what airplanes leave behind? If so, it
seems hard to believe that the atmosphere, that high, can have THAT much
moisture. If moisture, is the illumination due to reflection of light,
either from earth or the sun?
A stray thought (makes me wish I'd studied my physics a lot harder):
assuming the fireballs that illuminate the ground to the brilliance of the
full moon are merely the size of a grain of sand (are they??), I'm wondering
about the amount of energy that those things pack; not all of them are
really fast and get their energy from their speed.
Is this how the astrophysicists calculate the size of the things?
Yes, I know I can do research to find those answers, probably right on the
AMS, IMO or maybe even the NAMN pages..
SteveH
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