meteor (colorful)
Taken by Xavier Prines on December 13, 2014 @ Southern Maryland, USA
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This is not an image I would normally consider sending (low quality) but I'm hoping someone can explain the phenomenon that creates the rainbow streak when all others photographed as a white streak. If it helps, I believe these appeared as small 'fireballs' to the naked eye. Nikon D300s with Sigma 20mm
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Xavier, the color appears in the one meteor simply because it is much brighter than the others. The green light is from ionized nitrogen in the atmosphere, while the red is from ionized oxygen higher up in the atmosphere. Meteors dont look like this to the naked because the color is too faint, but the camera can pick it up. You saw a lot of this phenomenon in pictures of the last Leonid meteor storm, but you dont see too many in the photos from regular meteor showers because the meteors just arent bright enough. You do sometimes see naked-eye colors in the trails of bright fireballs, but as far as I know, the green/red thing is strictly a photographic phenomenon. See http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121119.html
Posted by voyager2 2014-12-15 02:03:33
 
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