I recall Nancy in some of her older work mentioning something about how we'd see an increase of 'green meteors', and had wondered about exactly what made GREEN meteors so special?

I think I've discovered her original inspiration for the green meteors. In H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds", all the Martian war machines originally come down to Earth as flaming green meteors.

Incidentally, in WarCraft III, green meteors begin falling at the height of a renewed battle between orcs and humans, signalling the return of the Burning Legions of Hell, and spawning gigantic Infernos, which look like rock golems with green flames all over their bodies. Funky stuff.

Seems like green meteors always mean bad news.

I saw a reddish meteor about 10 years ago .. before now I never gave it much thought but I assume it's their composition that makes them different colors, anyone out there know if that's the case and what elements would make a meteor appear green or red?

I did some web-searching and found some interesting info. I've read accounts of brown meteors, for instance. Anyway I found the answer to my own question at this site. Who needs PX when real astronomy is full of wonder all it's own!

As an amateur astronomer who spends pretty much any clear night looking up, I have been lucky enough to see some gorgeously coloured meteors. The one that sticks most vividly in my mind though was a fireball that was slow, bright and the most beautiful shade of green.

You are right, the colour of the meteor is a function of it's composition (although I cannot recall off the top of my head what element provides which colour).

From memory, zinc & copper typically lend most of the colour to the show, but I am sure there are other elements that provide fireball colour as well - I'll look it up when I get home from work.


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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

I don't think you need to say anything more than that.

Green meteors are actually originating from the Moon. Didn't you know the Moon's made from green cheese?

Oh dear, Clark Kent better be on the lookout then. Green meteor rock isn't really his best friend.

I have seen one green meteor. It was bright (greater than -4 mag) and the pure piercing green you see in fireworks displays. this was in the mid-90's.

IIRC - The green of fireworks comes from copper.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

[quote="AGN Fuel"]
Quote taken from www.geosurv.gov.nf.ca/education/meteor.html

Slightly larger fist-size pieces of material cause a much brighter and spectacular shooting star. These are known as fireballs and can be startling, not only because of their brilliance but also because of their vivid colour. Fireballs can be green, yellow, orange, blue, red, as well as brilliant white. The light of a fireball comes from the glowing gas surrounding the solid meteoroid, rather than from the meteoroid itself. Each element glows with its characteristic set of colours. The eerie green light so common in many fireballs comes from atmospheric oxygen. Nitrogen from our atmosphere contributes blue, and sodium from the meteoroid can add yellow to the light. Magnesium, iron, calcium, and dozens of other elements add their own colours.

Rapidly moving fireballs will tend to be white (a mixture of colours from many vaporized elements) whereas slower movers will appear to be red. Many fireballs change colour as they descend and slow down. A fireball that glows as bright as Venus, the bright evening star, may come from a pebble of iron or stone weighing barely an ounce. Brighter fireballs (about as bright as the moon) requires an object weighing about 2 to 5 kilograms. Astronomers estimate that a fireball must be somewhere between those two extremes if a piece will survive to reach the surface

Somewhere or other I know have a hardcopy paper about this very topic that I came across a few years ago, but for the life of me I can't find it (I really must clean my study up ).

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

Meteor: "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry". Meteor procedes to grow in size and turn green. :P

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I must not PX. PX is the mind-killer. I will face my PX. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the PX has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

[quote="AGN Fuel"]I just saw similar to what you describe about an hour ago, at 1:20 AM Eastern Time in the U.S. I live near D.C. I was laying down up on the second floor of my house, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw what looked like a Green Firework Dud traveling down towards the trees a little ways-a-way from my house. I live in a fairly populated area. I thought this to either be a Firework Dud, or Meteor. It didn't look very far away, but it also didn't look very big. It had what looked like very minor debris behind it. It had my heart racing not knowing what it was. I'm glad I found your post however. I believe I must have seen a Meteor/Meteorite. This is really amazing.

Welcome to BABB, NewAgent. I live SE of DC; we have fairly dark skies, and see some nifty "fireworks" evry so often.

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Standing on the shoulders of giants...

I'm just west of the District. My nerves are still kind of excited about this event. I just found out that my friend saw a blue one a few years back behind his townhouse too. I'm considering reporting this to the Washington Post, do you have any helpful advice?

Doubt if they'd care, at this point! But, it wouldn't hurt to call.

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Standing on the shoulders of giants...

I'll let u know if I get a story in the paper.

Also, I came into contact with a NASA Official, and he stated that what I did see was in fact a Meteor, and they quite often turn out to be Green, and as a matter of fact, if you go out into a dark area in the early morning, you can at witness 6 or 7 random or sporadic meteors. He indicated that since I saw debris, it was larger than the normal grain of sand sized meteoroid. He said the Green color is due to high Nickel Content. WOW!, What luck I had to witness such a thing. It was scary at first, but now it seems amazing.

I once saw a glowing green fuzzy cloud one night. It was near a military base so I figured it the after effects of some sort of military flare or such.
... Or maybe a Zetan ship backfired.

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I must not PX. PX is the mind-killer. I will face my PX. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the PX has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

How can a meteor be brown? That's dangerously close to glowing black, which doesn't really count if you ask me.

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Anyone who believes in the warning of the bible (prophecies concerning the end time which is now) shall be benefited from my invention. Because they won't be stupid enough to pass this! -Alex Chiu