Space junk or meteorite?

[stopusinmyid (Tammy)]

We just returned from 2 weeks of driving/camping around the coast of the Eyre Peninsula then up to the Gawler Ranges. Some impressive coastline I must say. We saw a couple of colonies of seals, a few dolphins and about 5 whales at the top of the Bight, a dingo as well. We saw the partial lunar eclipse, the transit of Venus and some of the best views of the Milky Way I have ever seen under those dark skies before the moon popped up.
Back to my question (before I get carried away) , while we were camped up in the Gawler Ranges NP I saw a pretty impressive shooting star (looking north). It's tail was green with what looked like red edging, around 1cm wide all up. It went across the sky for about 1.5 metres before it burnt out. So I am just wondering if it was space junk or a meteorite? So all in all, our holiday included some good sight seeing of our marvelous country and awesome skies.

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by stopusinmyid

We just returned from 2 weeks of driving/camping around the coast of the Eyre Peninsula then up to the Gawler Ranges. Some impressive coastline I must say. We saw a couple of colonies of seals, a few dolphins and about 5 whales at the top of the Bight, a dingo as well. We saw the partial lunar eclipse, the transit of Venus and some of the best views of the Milky Way I have ever seen under those dark skies before the moon popped up.
Back to my question (before I get carried away) , while we were camped up in the Gawler Ranges NP I saw a pretty impressive shooting star (looking north). It's tail was green with what looked like red edging, around 1cm wide all up. It went across the sky for about 1.5 metres before it burnt out. So I am just wondering if it was space junk or a meteorite? So all in all, our holiday included some good sight seeing of our marvelous country and awesome skies.

Those colours denote some metal is involved, so it could be a stoney iron Meteor or space junk.
Sounds like you had a great view and a good holiday
Cheers

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Glad you enjoyed your holiday as well ,
As Ron states colours mean metal , and green is copper burning , red is oxygen ? I think , sounds like a bit of space junk falling back to earth .
I seen a really bright one a few weeks ago as well , it was white and broke into 12 or so pieces that were orange , stony metior ? .
They are cool or what ?
Brian.

[stopusinmyid (Tammy)]

Yeh, that's what I was thinking (space junk) due to the colour. It was pretty cool Brian. Would have to be a first for me. A case of looking up at the right time.
tammy