How can I link meteor colours to flame tests?
Meteor colours come from glowing atoms such as sodium, magnesium and calcium, just as in flame tests, so a flame test practical explains why meteors glow in different colours.
Flame tests are a familiar chemistry practical, and they connect beautifully with meteors.
The science. When atoms are heated strongly, their electrons gain energy and then release it as light of particular colours. Each element gives its own pattern. In a flame test, sodium gives an intense yellow-orange, calcium orange-red, copper blue-green and potassium lilac.
In meteors. Meteors glow because the meteoroid and the air around it are heated to thousands of degrees. Atoms of sodium, magnesium, iron and calcium from the meteoroid, and oxygen and nitrogen from the air, emit light at their characteristic wavelengths. This gives meteors their colours: yellow-orange from sodium, blue-green from magnesium, green from oxygen atoms, red from nitrogen and oxygen lower in the trail. Scientists record meteor spectra with special cameras to work out what meteoroids are made of.
Practical. Carry out standard flame tests with your usual precautions: eye protection, small samples, nichrome wire loops or wooden splints soaked in solutions, a Bunsen burner on a heatproof mat, and no flammable materials nearby. Students record colours.
Connection. Show photographs or videos of colourful fireballs and meteor spectra. Ask students to suggest which elements might be producing the colours they see.
Extension. Older students can use simple diffraction gratings or spectroscopes to observe line spectra from discharge lamps, comparing them with meteor spectra.
This activity links atomic structure, practical chemistry and astronomy, and helps students see that the same science works in the lab and in the sky.
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