Abstract
ENDURING meteor trains that appear at a height of about 85 km as double lines of light have been reported for more than a century, the first record being Newton's1 in 1869. Although the dual appearance, which has been seen in the telescope within a few seconds of train formation and by the naked eye after about 1 min, is not due to the occurrence of separate trains2, no explanation has yet been offered for the phenomenon. The peculiar formation almost certainly results from the expanding meteor train assuming the shape of a hollow cylinder3 and it is shown here that this behaviour is to be expected on the basis of recent4,5 models of the mechanism of long enduring train luminosity.
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BAGGALEY, W. Hollow meteor trains. Nature 270, 588–589 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/270588a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/270588a0
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