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Re: (meteorobs) Re-Double meteor

In a message dated 7/1/03 2:12:33 PM Pacific Daylight Time, ksyo@bellsouthdot net writes:


>>It doesn't seem like anything flaking off would change the fact that you
still have an object moving through the atmosphere super-heating the air --
i.e. plasma...therefore changes in atmospheric density should be suspect(?)<<


Actually ionizing the air....
How often do you see a visible train associated with a meteor? What velocities and magnitudes are involved? I use to keep records of the percentages of trains per shower. Also kept up with the magnitudes of a meteor that would produce a train. I was surprised to find out that fireball magnitudes does not guarantee a visible train...though one is probably there, but just below most peoples threshold of perceiving one. I recall a -11 mag Capricornid with no visible trains at all. The same goes for a lot of fireball Geminids.  I tend to think that the trains are there, but just not visible for the most part...unless there is a high velocity meteor involved such as a Perseid or Leonid. In those cases they would probably appear simply as meteors with intermittent bursts within a train...and then perhaps even end in a terminal burst?
If the meteoroid is of medium to slow velocites, I would often expect to see the meteor appear to fade out and back in with no ionization trail between if there were some kind of sloughing off effect.


>>Isn't what we normally see as a meteor primarily the superheated air, not
the actual meteoroid "burning?"<<


You are probably seeing both....the meteoroid "burning up" and air ionization. If the meteoroid didn't "burn up", we would be treated to numerous persistent trains and getting pelted by small meteorites all the time.

George Zay
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