Overview
Probably everyone already saw a meteor once in his life. Completely unexpectedly it twitched over the night sky. It is an old tradition and well known that one may wish something in such a moment. We don’t know however, how many of these desires really come true. But however it is absolutely no field of research of the ERFM to find out these facts. What we know certainly is that: With a bit of luck it is quite possible to become a witness of a much more spectacular optical phenomenon at the firmament. Not colourless or as spoiled point this event comes there. No, it is brilliant brightly, unbelievably intensive in colours and clearly voluminous. We refer here to this as a so-called fireball, which is drawing apparently leisurely in some seconds across the sky. The people, who even saw a bolide or a fire meteor, will keep in mind that event for a very long time. It is an unbelievably beautiful and sometimes frightening phenomenon, in which the night turns into daylight. Who may even experience a detonating meteor event, will feel probably suddenly „the hand of God “or evenly the everyday power of physics. Humans begin suddenly to fade out their daily monotony. They think about their own existence, about earth, about the solar system, about the world altogether and about they just experienced.
Table of content
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Meteoric Science
A fireball is in general a very bright meteor. Its brightness magnitude should exceed the maximum apparent magnitude of the planet Venus. A value of –4mag is specified as a limiting value of the magnitude between a normal meteor and a fireball
more ... Glossary
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A bolide is in general an extremely bright meteor, which is suddenly evolving from a fireball. A value of –12mag is specified as a limiting value of the magnitude between a fireball and a bolide, because a good comparison to the full moon is possible.
more ... Glossary
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A meteor is a short light phenomenon, which appears in the sky, when a meteoroid is passing the Earth’s atmosphere.
more ... Glossary
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A fire meteor is a very bright meteor with a quite voluminous appearance. It is seen always coloured and it forms a meteor tail. At the front section the rather spherical and brightest object of this phenomenon is glowing in a blue to green light. It fades seamlessly into tapering tail, which is glowing in a yellowish to reddish light. The meteor tail thereby can be flickering like flames in the wind and even show tear-offs.
more ... Glossary
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ERFM | English | Meteors |