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Re: (meteorobs) Parallel trains

Adam Marsh wrote:

> Thanks Malcolm
>     I see where you going.  The cylinder is large and diffuse, but
> when you look through the edges, you are looking through more gas
> and hence see it as having brighter edges forming two parallel
> trains.

That's right.

>     One thought that crossed my mind was about the staggered
> trains.  Would it be possible that the meteor could be spinning and
> presenting different faces to the atmosphere as it burns up.  If the
> surface area of the different faces imparted more or less energy on
> the atmosphere you may get a staggered train produced.

These are rare, but they do exist.  One experienced telescopic
observer reported a meteor train which comprised a series of bands.
Here's a schematic.  The : are low density regions.  The | is a
brighter region.  The contrast between the two regions was more
evident in the drawing.

   :||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||:
   :||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||:
   :||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||:
   :||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||:
   :||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||:
   :||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||:
   :||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||::||:

The bands were thinner than this, making it even more striking.  The
width was approximately 35 arcminutes and the spacing of the stripes
was about 3 arcminutes.  We interpreted that this was a tumbling piece
of flattened rock.  When side on to the atmosphere there was little
train produced; only when face on was a visible train generated.

To the naked the train would look continuous as the gaps were so
close.  Telescopic watching is probably the only way to see such fine
detail in the trains, so I use the drawing during talks promoting
the telescopic method.  It's great watching ordinary trains drift and
distort.

Malcolm
References: