unique meteor shower

[clarkdatuba]

so i have seen meteor showers before, but whatever happened last night was very impressive from here in east texas.  I was wondering why some of the more massive objects emmitted green light as they entered the atmosphere, never having noticed any meteorites with coloring near this bright.

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>so i have seen meteor showers before, but whatever happened last night was very impressive from here in east texas.&nbsp; I was wondering why some of the more massive objects emmitted green light as they entered the atmosphere, never having noticed any meteorites with coloring near this bright. <br />Posted by clarkdatuba</DIV><br /><br />Did you see a meteor shower, or 1 very bright meteor (a fireball)?</p><p>Colars can only be seen if the meteor is bright enough; for fainter (i.e. most normal) meteors, there are not enough photons to activate the eye's color receptors, only the rods respond to dim light, and they see in white only.</p><p>The most common source of meteor colors is the atmosphere, usually from nitrogen (green) and oxygen (red).</p><p>For larger objects the materials that the object is made of do become significant.</p><p>MW</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>