Starship Asterisk*

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:08 am ...
Although the exposure was timed to catch a Perseids meteor, the orientation of the imaged streak seems a better match to a meteor from the Southern Delta Aquariids, a meteor shower that peaked a few weeks earlier.

neufer wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:59 am "I think it is time we demonstrated the full power of this station."

Ann wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:51 am My personal sense of aesthetics makes the picture rather painful to look at. That shade of green! Set against the wan colors of the Andromeda galaxy! Also the green color of the meteor is quite unchanging, even though it is my understanding that meteors tend to change color from reddish, to green, to reddish again.

But I certainly don't know enough about meteors to say that the color seen in today's APOD is unlikely, let alone impossible. Lucky shot, too, when the meteor passed right in front of the galaxy - or rather, when the galaxy, the streak of the meteor and the photographer were lined up in a straight line.

Nice picture. Now I'll go and look at something that is gentler on my eyes.

Ann

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:08 am Although the exposure was timed to catch a Perseids meteor, the orientation of the imaged streak seems a better match to a meteor from the Southern Delta Aquariids, a meteor shower that peaked a few weeks earlier.

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:03 pm

neufer wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:59 am "I think it is time we demonstrated the full power of this station."

Deathgalaxy class, no doubt. The gap in Andromeda's ring is now explained.

Bruce

zendae1 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:29 pm The science behind it may be settled, and old hat, but I still marvel that something the size of a grain of sand can produce that much light.

zendae1 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:29 pm The science behind it may be settled, and old hat, but I still marvel that something the size of a grain of sand can produce that much light.

vinkev wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:58 pm My question is: could this actually be variable flare from the ICECUBE satellite rather than a passing meteor? Fantastic image though whether it was a passing satellite or a meteor.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 14, 2018 3:47 am

vinkev wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:58 pm
My question is: could this actually be variable flare from the ICECUBE satellite rather than a passing meteor? Fantastic image though whether it was a passing satellite or a meteor.

No. Satellite flares are generally white (the color of the Sun), or sometimes shifted a bit towards red by the way light scatters. This green is absolutely typical of a meteor, some combination of ionized atmospheric oxygen and ionized iron from the body itself.

https://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/faqf/#5 wrote:
American Meteor Society
Fireball FAQs

<<The dominant composition of a meteoroid can play an important part in the observed colors of a fireball, with certain elements displaying signature colors when vaporized. For example, sodium produces a bright yellow color, nickel shows as green, and magnesium as blue-white. The majority of light from a fireball radiates from a compact cloud of material immediately surrounding the meteoroid or closely trailing it. 95% of this cloud consists of atoms from the surrounding atmosphere; the balance consists of atoms of vaporized elements from the meteoroid itself. These excited particles will emit light at wavelengths characteristic for each element. The most common emission lines observed in the visual portion of the spectrum from ablated material in the fireball head originate from iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), and sodium (Na). Silicon (Si) may be under-represented due to incomplete dissociation of SiO₂ molecules. Manganese (Mn), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu) have been observed in fireball spectra, along with rarer elements. The refractory elements Aluminum (Al), Calcium (Ca), and Titanium (Ti) tend to be incompletely vaporized and thus also under-represented in fireball spectra.>>