[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: (meteorobs) Interesting Question
Adam/Ed/Kenya/George's explanations match what I understand too, Kim: naively,
I think of a meteoroid as jamming kinetic energy into atmospheric electrons,
"jumping" them into higher atomic orbits, or out of their atoms altogether.
This produces no light - it actually *absorbs* some of the energy from the
collision! But then these energized electrons re-emit their "new" energy as
light (and other wavelengths) when they drop back down into lower orbits and/or
recombine with an atom. And this is the source of light for both the meteor
(mostly when nonionized electrons "drop" back to their original atomic orbits),
and the train (from recombination)...
Based on all this, though, Ed's statement below sure confused me:
>A meteor spectrum may not contain any ionized lines.
Now if cascading and recombination are the processes by which meteors and
meteor trains emit all their light, then how can their spectra contain anything
BUT emission lines?? In other words, what process could produce a continuous
spectrum during and/or after a meteor entry?
Clear skies!
Lew
References: