The streak of light in this remarkable photograph is a "shooting star," a tiny speck of space debris burning up as it enters Earth's atmosphere.
To the naked eye, a shooting star appears as a fleeting flash of white light. This image, however, documents the appearance of a wide spectrum of colors produced by the object as it hurdles toward Earth. These colors are predictable: first red, then white, and finally blue. If the meteor (shooting star) islarge enough to survive the fall through the atmosphere, it cools and doesn't emit any visible light at all.
The colors of this shooting star may also indicate the minerals that make up the space rock. Differentelements emit different-colored light when they burn. Iron, one of the most common elements found in meteors, glows yellow. Silicates, which contain a form of the element silicon, glow red. A green glow, clearly visible in the trail of this shooting star, indicates the presence of burning copper.
Understanding how, why, and when these colors appear is the science of spectroscopy. so yeah...
