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Re: (meteorobs) Interesting Question
Thanks for the reply, Ed - I'll review those pages in McKinley!
Now another question related to Kim's original one: I've read a little about ionized gases in space (i.e., what deep-skyers call planetary and emission nebulae). Questions of how large an envelope of gases gets ionized by a given source, what wavelengths an emission cloud eventually releases light at afterward, and how long the cloud takes to "fade out", are pretty complex!
The equations for all this depend (in the near-vacuum of a nebula) on a laundry list of assumptions: about cloud composition (how much of each element and molecule, how much "dust"); about internal motions within the nebula (which affect mixing and reflection, among other things); and about the original radiation source, usually a white dwarf, SN, or young blue stars...
OK, my question: How on earth do meteoricists manage to work out these equations in the whirling maelstrom of Earth's upper atmosphere??? And what does the "primary source" of the emission energy (i.e., the meteoroid impact) look like from an astrophysicist's perspective?
(All suggestions to read Opik's _Physics of Meteor Flight in the Atmosphere_ will be gratefully received, but only if you accompany the suggestion with a complimentary copy of the book! ;>)
Clear skies!
Lew
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