Science fiction myth about meteors being radioactive, how true is this?

Question

I've seen a lot of science fiction movie from the black & white ones to newer ones and the meteors seem to be glowing when someone finds one after a meteor shower, i figure the glowing might be from entering the atmosphere but why do they glow green?

Answer 1

They glow because they are burning up in the atmosphere. If it is glowing green, it probably contains some copper. They are no more radioactive than rocks on Earth are. Probably a little less.

Answer 2

Finding a 'glowing' meteorite would be a very rare find. Most meteorites burn up or explode due to friction when they enter the Earth's atmosphere. If a meteorite were heated up to the point that it became molten, then it would glow (like molten lava). Unfortunately, at the great speeds that meteors enter the Earth's atmosphere, a molten rock would be torn to pieces by wind sheer. If it were large enough to hold itself together, it would make a really big splat and a huge crater (and I wouldn't want to be nearby when that happened).

Many meteorites contain rare Earth elements (like Iridium). Some of these can be radioactive. But generally speaking, meteorites are less radioactive than most common rocks found on the Earth's surface. (See below for more info about meteorite myths)

As far as green glowing meteorites? Don't worry, pieces of the planet Krypton are not falling on us and you won't get radiation poisoning from meteorites. Hollywood is notorious for bad science.

Answer 3

that fact that it's fiction might have something to do with it.

Answer 4

For some reason green is associated with radio activity. During the black and white movie era most people saw science and space as strange and exotic. Nuclear energy was perceived to be so powerful that it was applied to many different situations to help story tellers set up out of this world scenarios. I believe the Night of the Living Dead movie's premise was that radioactivity was turning every dead human into zombies.

Now the public knows that radioactivity does little except cause cancer. This can be seen in zombie movies again as radioactivity is no longer the source of undead which are now produced by the always deadly micro-organisms.