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Re: (meteorobs) Interesting Question
-----Original Message-----
From: Kenya Patzer <kpatzer@dudot edu>
To: meteorobs@latrade.com <meteorobs@latrade.com>
Date: Saturday, September 12, 1998 9:06 AM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Interesting Question
>Wouldn't light emission have more to do with electron states rather than
>ionization? A photon is emitted when an electron moves from a state of
>higher energy to lower energy, and all that...
Your statement is correct. Bohr states that when an atom suddenly
changes from one orbit or energy level to another it emits or absorbs light,
If the atom ends in a state of lower energy after the change it emits a
bright line, if the atom ends in a higher state of energy you see a dark
line or absorption line. A meteor spectrum may not contain any ionized
lines. An ionized line occurs when an atom has lost one of it's electrons.
An atom is said to be singly ionized when it has lost one electron, doubly
ionized, if it has lost two, etc.
A very good basic book on this is: Astronomical Spectroscopy - by A. D.
Thackeray. It is about stellar spectra but the same principles apply.
Ed Majden - Amateur Meteor Spectroscopist
AMS Affiliate