Tiny
meteors, typically no larger than a grain of sand, frequently bore hot tunnels
through Earth's air to leave behind thin, glowing trails of gas. We sometimes
see them as dramatic "shooting
stars."
The trails
were estimated to be narrower than a meter, but until now, more precise
measurements have been impossible to make.
Turns out
they are amazingly thin compared to the light show
they create.
Meteor
trails begin about 75 miles (120 km) above Earth's surface, a region that is
not typically focused on by ground-based telescopes or satellites.
Using
detailed images, snapped by the Subaru Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory
in Hawaii and focused on this region of the upper atmosphere, astronomers
measured the streaks to discover that they can be as thin as a few millimeters
across, or about as thin as a pencil lead. The measurements mark the first time
a meteor track's width has been precisely measured solely using light emitted
from the event.
The results
of this study are detailed in a recent issue of the Publications of the
Astronomical Society of Japan.
advertisement
