The Comet and the Fireball
Image Credit & Copyright:
Cory Poole
This picture was supposed to feature a comet.
Specifically, a series of images of the
brightest comet of 2021 were being captured:
Comet Leonard.
But the universe had other plans.
Within a fraction of a second, a
meteor so bright it could be called a fireball
streaked through just below the comet.
And the meteor's flash was even
more green than the comet's coma.
The cause of the meteor's green was likely
magnesium
evaporating from the meteor's pebble-sized core, while the cause of the
comet's green was likely
diatomic carbon
recently ejected from the comet's
city-sized nucleus.
The images were taken 10 days ago over the
Sacramento River and
Mt. Lassen in
California,
USA.
The fireball was on the leading edge of this year's
Geminid Meteor Shower -- which peaked a few days later.
Comet Leonard is now fading after reaching naked-eye visibility last week --
but now is
moving into southern skies.