Green fireball Over Russia

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Hmmm... that's new info for me. Never heard of nickel burning green before.

TheRedneck

Yeah. As I mentioned, both sources say the nickel in the iron-nickel meteor glows green in "high heat". Maybe it's the higher heat that makes a difference -- hotter than a standard flame test you would do in a lab.

Or maybe it has to do with the nickel being an alloy with iron, or maybe something to do with the ionizing gasses at high altitude. However, neither of this sources mentions those things, just the high heat.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

I guess it might also be possible that the nickel and iron could actually chemically combine at those temperatures as well. Whatever the reason, it's an interesting phenomenon.

TheRedneck