Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Development Of High-Resolution Meteor Spectra Analysis, Zhangqing Yang

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Meteoroids are often billions of years old and as they ablate and ionize in the atmosphere, they give off light leaving us clues to the history of our solar system. In addition, their presence imposes serious risks to our equipment and astronauts in space. My research deals with analyzing High-Resolution Meteor Spectra, which are obtained by separating the light Meteors give off through a Diffraction Grating. Firstly, as the Meteor’s speed during ablation affects its spectrum, the position, speed, and trajectory of 40 well-tracked Meteors (picked from over 500) were determined using the programs Metal and Mirfit. Then, the spectra …