Why did this meteor appear cyan?

Question

A meteor recently flashed over Queenland.

The meteor has been described by various people as appearing cyan or aqua, so the blueness of the image can't be due to a camera issue. The colour doesn't appear to be anything found along the black body spectrum either.

What (chemical/physical process) would cause this meteor to appear cyan?

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‘I saw it come right down in the sky’: the meteor over south-east Queensland on Saturday night. Photograph: Craig Turton/AAP

Slightly related: In the recent Con-Ed transformer “fire”, what exactly produced the color of the huge blue glow over New York City? including this answer (I suspect copper or molecular carbon) — uhoh, Jun 24 '19 at 00:26
You ought to go and look for it. Meteorites are very valuable especially if their fall was seen and recorded, Just how valuable depends on the type of meteorite,but the one in your photograph could easily be worth 100s of 1000s of £s — Michael Walsby, Jun 24 '19 at 22:22

score 19 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 24 '19 at 03:24

19

The colour of a meteor depends mostly on its chemical composition emission spectrum. To simplify magnesium meteors are noted to have an emission spectrum which results in blue to green colour. Changing factors like adding additional metals and the speed of the meteor could results in a cyan meteor compared to a blue one.

Source: NASA on meteors

answered Jun 24 '19 at 03:24

Barry Jenakuns

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magnesium emission plus just thermal blackbody radiation might do it also – uhoh Jun 25 '19 at 00:51

Why did this meteor appear cyan?

1 Answers1