Questions tagged [meteor]
Questions on objects passing through the atmosphere which leave visible wakes of incandescent material.
77
questions
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Where is the Perseids meteor shower coming from?
Swift–Tuttle Comet has orbital period of 133.28 years. Yet, people say that debris and dust from this comet causes this meteor shower. This does not make any sense. Or do they want to say that from ...
5
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1answer
47 views
Strange trail left by shooting star [duplicate]
I saw something really odd last night that I cannot understand.
Last night I got up around 3am to catch a glimpse of the upcoming Perseids meteor shower, now I know it's not peaking until next week ...
1
vote
1answer
19 views
Is there an all sky meteor watch with spectroscopy?
I assume performing spectroscopy on meteors would give us information about the composition of the outer layers of meteoroids, which we can't study on finds because it has already burned up. This ...
1
vote
1answer
32 views
apparent and absolute magnitude of meteors and space debris
I have a question regarding the apparent and absolute magnitude of space debris objects or meteors reentering the earth's atmosphere. I already understand the difference between apparent and absolute ...
1
vote
2answers
94 views
What could be the name of a huge asteroid I watched some years ago?
Some years ago I was with my family in Venezuela. I'm not sure about the date/hour, but probably it was somewhat around 2007 in the afternoon. We were talking when one of us saw a huge meteor moving "...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
How complicated is the heating of meteors?
When any gas, including our atmosphere, is compressed, it's temperature rises.
When a meteor is falling through the atmosphere, it is compressing the air below it.
Because this makes the air hotter ...
3
votes
1answer
133 views
Why is this shooting star wavy or squiggly toward the end of it's visible streak
I was taking photos of some stars when I noticed this shooting star was wavy toward the end (start?) of it's trail. My cousin suggesting that it could be the CCD in my camera or as it spiralling as it ...
6
votes
2answers
218 views
Are meteors visible on Mars?
If a person were standing on the surface of Mars, under ideal viewing conditions for seeing a meteor: no clouds, the sun has long set, would a meteor be visible to the naked eye considering how thin ...
1
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1answer
116 views
What makes some meteor showers continue for days, while the “Unicorn shower” can be shorter than one hour?
The Washington Post's One hundred meteors in 15 minutes? ‘Short-lived outburst’ of shooting stars forecast for Thursday night. says:
A “short-lived outburst” is forecast for Thursday evening around ...
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0answers
24 views
Series of Star Looking Objects Moving in a Perfect Straight Line [duplicate]
I was out and the moon was shining. I looked at the sky just because of the moon, because the light of moon was making things visible. I just looked at the sky.
What I saw was spectacular. I don't ...
0
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3answers
6k views
Slow moving star like objects in the night sky [duplicate]
So yesterday at about 2am I was watching the sky when I saw a small star like object moving very slowly across the sky. My initial thought was that it was a satellite due to the fact it was moving so ...
19
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1answer
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Why did this meteor appear cyan?
A meteor recently flashed over Queenland.
The meteor has been described by various people as appearing cyan or aqua, so the blueness of the image can't be due to a camera issue. The colour doesn't ...
3
votes
2answers
117 views
How was this interstellar fireball observed and its trajectory analyzed?
The short, interesting paper Discovery of a Meteor of Interstellar Origin describes a proposed discovery of a second interstellar object. This one hit the Earth, and was discovered not by telescope, ...
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1answer
167 views
Could the Sun have liquid iron in orbit?
How close of an orbit to the Sun could an iron meteor get before it melts into a ball?
0
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1answer
92 views
Could pure iron from a star make it to Earth?
Since iron is a stars waste could a star that goes Super nova eject pure iron to travel across the galaxy?
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/35101/99-99-pure-iron-meteorite
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votes
0answers
47 views
Was NASA's 2007 attempt to see helions during a solar eclipse successful? What instruments were used?
This answer about Sun-grazing comets led me eventually to Wikipedia's Helion (meteoroid), which has a one-sentence long article:
A Helion meteoroid is a meteoroid that arrives from the approximate ...
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0answers
42 views
What percentage of a lunar meteor strike is blown back into space?
Reading a discussion on another website, it was proposed that if a large meteor struck the moon, that a few days later, Earth would receive a meteor shower.
I thought about that and it seemed to me ...
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votes
2answers
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Did I see a mentionable event in Germany early morning on 6th of February 2019?
Around 6.15am (GMT + 1) on the 6th of February 2019 I
was looking out of my window somewhat north, when I saw something one would probably call a shooting star. The features were:
A magnitude I ...
-3
votes
1answer
1k views
Why do shooting stars burn close to the ground sometimes?
I saw a shooting star as I was standing on the roof of my home. My home is double storey. And the height of that shooting star that I saw was maybe 10 to 13 meters. It was burned down at that height. ...
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vote
2answers
105 views
What would it take to capture a passing asteroid or other celestial body into Earth's orbit?
Every once in a while, we have a celestial body that passes through our solar system. What would be needed to reel one of these in? Not crashing down to Earth, that would be bad, but say into a high ...
3
votes
1answer
60 views
Will comet 21P that just passed Earth on Sept 10 produce Draconid storm on Oct 9?
Comet 21P/Giaccobini-Zinner just made its closest pass to Earth and also made its Solar perihelion on the same day (Sept 10) which is roughly one month ahead of the annual Draconids meteor shower (Oct ...
-1
votes
3answers
218 views
Which of the following is the correct usage: meteor / meteorite?
I hope a meteor falls on your head.
or
I hope a meteorite falls on your head.
And why?
Definition of meteor
Definition of meteorite
4
votes
2answers
127 views
Water Content of Space Bodies
In general, are carbonaceous chondrites (CC) or comets more water rich?
I know that evidence has suggested that both CC and comets are partly composed of water, but which body is generally more water ...
2
votes
1answer
214 views
C-Type Asteroids and Carbonaceous Chondrite Meteorites
I was just wondering, what is the relationship between C-type asteroids and carbonaceous chondrite (CC) meteorites? Do CC meteorites come from C-type asteroids?
2
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1answer
105 views
Precautions when retrieving material originated from space
I'm assuming that when retrieving a meteor for study and later display, there are precautions taken against possible radiation coming from it. Is my assumption correct and are there other precautions ...
4
votes
1answer
88 views
Is it possible to image a meteor so the rock is visible?
I was wondering what one would see if they were to look through a telescope tracking a meteor as it shot through the sky. Technology aside, would one be able to see the object tumbling or would it ...
2
votes
1answer
63 views
Is there a database for identifying the falling light I saw?
I witnessed a light fall from the sky. It was visibly about as bright as Mars, so brighter than meteorites I've seen, was just a point of light with no tail, and traveled much much faster than an ...
-1
votes
1answer
329 views
pH of meteorite [closed]
When a meteorite shower strikes a water body, what will be the pH of the water after the strike.
Will it always be $<7$
or
Will it always be $>7$
or
Will it always be $=7$
or
The answer ...
1
vote
1answer
259 views
How much time does it take for a meteor (shooting star) to touch the ground after its combustion? [closed]
I know that meteors that We see as shooting stars travel tens of thousands of kilometers per hour and are tiny as a grain of sand, but after hitting the atmosphere and burn I suppose that its ashes ...
6
votes
1answer
134 views
What explains this puzzling radio signature from a fireball?
September 21, 2017 a bright fireball over Holland was reported by hundreds of people. Several all-sky cameras recorded it as well as a special radio beacon set up to capture radio signatures of ...
2
votes
1answer
105 views
How long can afterglow last after a fireball?
I was watching the YouTube video Perseid Meteor Shower - Mojave Desert, California which looks East before sunrise, presumably in mid-August of 2016. I've made a GIF of a few seconds near the ...
2
votes
1answer
61 views
Two lights roughly 5 minutes apart about as bright as Mars or maybe Saturn
I'm in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and around 9:30 on August 4th 2017 I saw a bright light that got dimmer moving from the tree line to the east up and to my left fairly slowly, and steadily getting ...
3
votes
1answer
129 views
is there any mathematical formula, paper or anything that shows the probability of a meteor hitting a particular spot of moon's surface?
According to this article http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160209-meteorite-death-india-probability-odds/ a science professor at Tulane University made a paper to calculate the probability ...
4
votes
1answer
167 views
Meteor shower from Moon's “debris”
Did we ever witness a "meteor shower" which was actually dust or debris of some kind from our own Moon?
3
votes
2answers
782 views
Why are these objects moving at Vastly Different Speeds along the same orbit?
UPDATE: The on-line simulation seems to be working beautifully now! I'd recommend anyone to go back and take another look to enjoy both the mathematical beauty of orbital mechanics, and the aesthetics ...
4
votes
1answer
173 views
If Earth had no atmosphere, how many people would be killed by meteors every year? [closed]
Suppose those people engage in similar activity, walking on surface etc.
8
votes
1answer
560 views
Is it unlikely for a meteor to hit the day side of the earth?
I have binge watched a lot of documentaries and movies about meteors hitting the earth. The one pattern I have seen, even in the science-fact documentaries like Nova, is that the animations show ...
2
votes
0answers
77 views
What is the average Ni-Fe crystal length in iron meteorites?
Iron-core meteorites display an awesome criss-cross pattern known as the Widmanstätten pattern, shown below:
(photo by Dr. Patrick M. Len, taken from Wikipedia)
I TA for an intro-level astronomy/...
8
votes
1answer
970 views
What factors influence the Widmanstätten pattern in iron meteorites?
The cores of iron meteorites exhibit beautiful Widmanstätten patterns, as shown below in the Alvord meteorite (photo by Jim H):
I understand these patterns form when the molton nickel-iron core of ...
0
votes
1answer
119 views
Direction of Meteors [duplicate]
Do meteors always streak in the same direction? While I know it's not likely to be exactly the same direction, but generally speaking. Would one say meteors always travel, for example, east to west?
3
votes
4answers
967 views
What's the terminology of a meteor “ditch” when impact happens at an angle?
When a meteor hit the surface of a planet, it creates an impact crater. When an meteor hit the surface of a planet at an angle, like it usually happens in the movies, what do you call the long "ditch" ...
0
votes
1answer
107 views
How to calculate a meteor's entrance altitude to Earth's atmosphere? [closed]
Also, in which altitude did fireball went thermal explosion?
4
votes
1answer
773 views
Why do we keep orbiting through the Perseid meteors?
I understand that the meteors originated from the the comet Swift–Tuttle. Presumably they left the comet with some velocity relative to the solar system. As comets follow elliptical orbits presumably ...
0
votes
1answer
271 views
Can a meteor shower happen simultaneously all around the planet?
In the original book, the classic 1962 movie and the modern 2001 re-make for TV. The store "The day of the Triffits" depicts a meteor shower that happen all around the Earth at the same time, and ...
1
vote
2answers
94 views
Does this video catch an Eta Aquarid - Earth skimming meteor?
I did a time-lapse animation looking towards the sunrise from Sydney, Australia on 25th of April. You can see it here around 1m 25s in (that link should jump to just before it appears very near where ...
2
votes
1answer
435 views
Why do most meteors vanish just before hitting the ground?
Many times we see in the sky that most of the meteor shower trails vanish when they are about to strike the earth several feet above the ground. Why does this happen? They could strike the earth's ...
3
votes
2answers
104 views
Do massive bolide entries coincide with meteor showers?
Are exceptionally large, bright, meteors (such as Tunguska or Chelyabinsk) more common during common meteor showers like the Perseids, or the Leonids?
If not, why is that? Do the meteor showers ...
4
votes
1answer
176 views
Earth's Versus Catastrophic Meteor
How evasive is the Earth to Catastrophic Meteors?
Google says the Earth is approximately 92.96 million miles from the Sun. It also says the suns radius is 432,474 miles.
Therefore, it is 93,392,474 ...
5
votes
4answers
7k views
Is it possible for a virus to come from a meteorite?
So I am not a true scientist and I was just wondering if an extraterrestrial rock from space can have some dangerous unidentified virus or bacteria that can be deadly and wipe out the Earth if it not ...
6
votes
1answer
534 views
Is there any real chance of getting hit with a meteorite if we build a base on the moon?
I've been reading an article today on how the European Space Agency (ESA) has an interest in building a space village on the moon which will be 3D printed and assembled by robots. Eventually people ...
