Twisting Meteor Train
Credit and Copyright:
Tom Bailey
(Des Moines Astronomical Society)
Blazing through the sky at 70 kilometers per second,
100 kilometers or so above planet Earth,
many bright Leonid
meteors left behind a persistent,
smoke-like trail of glowing, hot, ionized gas.
Twisting in
high altitude winds, these
trails or trains typically were visible for many minutes.
As Iowa astrophotographer Tom Bailey captured the eerie, wispy remains
of this persistent train from a fireball arcing
overhead, yet another fainter Leonid
meteor flashed across the sky.