12-December-2006, 02:58 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Dubh Linn
Posts: 3,643
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An update:
Quote:
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That meteors produce emission line spectra indicates that the light we detect from them must be derived from a hot gas, and not from an incandescent solid body (although the atoms and molecules that make up the meteor "gas" do of course come from the meteoroid itself) ... It is clear that the emission lines are derived from a hot gas, at a temperature of about 4,000°C, that surrounds the ablating meteoroid. Emission lines from many diverse atoms and molecules have been observed in meteor spectra. In most spectra the strongest lines are due to the so-called H and K lines of ionized calcium, and lines due to sodium and magnesium. Spectra obtained from very-high-speed meteoroids (such as those that produce Leonid meteors) also show emission lines due to atmospheric oxygen atoms [O] and nitrogen molecules [N2].
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