What specific atmospheric gases cause a visible red glow when a meteor passes through?
Answer
Nitrogen ($ ext{N}_2$) and oxygen ($ ext{O}$)
The red coloration sometimes observed in meteor trails is generally not caused by the material of the incoming space rock, but rather by the excitation of the Earth's atmosphere itself. Specifically, the primary components of the air, nitrogen ($ ext{N}_2$) and atomic oxygen ($ ext{O}$), glow red when they are heated intensely by the passage of the rapidly moving meteoroid. This atmospheric emission becomes more visually dominant when the meteoroid is moving relatively slower, as the heating is less intense, allowing the red emission from the surrounding air to become more apparent compared to the brighter, shorter-wavelength light produced by the vaporizing rock.
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