<p>The answer is yes. The mass (and hence brightness) of meteorites follows some sort of power-law relationship such that there are many more small particles than big lumps of rock. This means that there are indeed many more faint meteorites than bright ones, though I am struggling to find any detailed study that goes below the magnitude range you can see with the naked eye. This paper by <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1966CoSka...3...75K" rel="nofollow">Kresakova (1966)</a> seems thorough and representative. It suggests that the number of meteorites goes up by a factor of 3 for each unit increase in astronomical magnitude (i.e. decreasing brightness).</p>

<p>The paper referred to by Barry Carter in his comments is <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1980MNRAS.193..645C" rel="nofollow">Cook et al. (1980)</a>, which finds that log of the <em>cumulative</em> number of meteors is proportional to about half the astronomical magnitude. i.e. 
$$\frac{d \log \phi}{dm} \simeq 0.5 $$
This means that the number of meteorites increases by a factor of $10^{0.5}$ for each unit increase in magnitude - i.e. also about 3.</p>

<p>It is a separate issue as to whether you see more with night vision goggles on. I guess you would because these would have light amplification properties that would enable you to see fainter objects - that's the whole point of them.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-15T22:15:04.583Z
2015-01-15T22:34:26.703Z
2015-01-15T22:34:26.703Z
ProfRob
<p>I remember one time a while back looking at the night sky through night vision goggles.  One interesting thing I noticed is that there appeared to be many very faint meteors in the sky practically all the time.  I assume this is dust burning up in the atmosphere, or possibly an unusual effect produced by the night vision goggles themselves.  I more suspect that it is dust burning faintly in the atmosphere because it was seen only in the sky.  My main question is: Is space dust constantly entering the atmosphere as small meteors at a fairly high rate?  If I remember right, it was a few every second, which is much more frequent than normal "brighter" meteors, even during a meteor shower.</p>

<planetary-atmosphere><meteor><dust>
Are there many faint meteors that are too faint to see with the naked eye?
Jonathan
# Are there many faint meteors that are too faint to see with the naked eye?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-11-18)

I remember one time a while back looking at the night sky through night vision goggles. One interesting thing I noticed is that there appeared to be many very faint meteors in the sky practically all the time. I assume this is dust burning up in the atmosphere, or possibly an unusual effect produced by the night vision goggles themselves. I more suspect that it is dust burning faintly in the atmosphere because it was seen only in the sky. My main question is: Is space dust constantly entering the atmosphere as small meteors at a fairly high rate? If I remember right, it was a few every second, which is much more frequent than normal "brighter" meteors, even during a meteor shower.

**Tags:** planetary-atmosphere, meteor, dust


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-01-15. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

The answer is yes. The mass (and hence brightness) of meteorites follows some sort of power-law relationship such that there are many more small particles than big lumps of rock. This means that there are indeed many more faint meteorites than bright ones, though I am struggling to find any detailed study that goes below the magnitude range you can see with the naked eye. This paper by [Kresakova (1966)](http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1966CoSka...3...75K) seems thorough and representative. It suggests that the number of meteorites goes up by a factor of 3 for each unit increase in astronomical magnitude (i.e. decreasing brightness).

The paper referred to by Barry Carter in his comments is [Cook et al. (1980)](http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1980MNRAS.193..645C), which finds that log of the *cumulative* number of meteors is proportional to about half the astronomical magnitude. i.e.
$$\frac{d \log \phi}{dm} \simeq 0.5 $$
This means that the number of meteorites increases by a factor of $10^{0.5}$ for each unit increase in magnitude - i.e. also about 3.

It is a separate issue as to whether you see more with night vision goggles on. I guess you would because these would have light amplification properties that would enable you to see fainter objects - that's the whole point of them.


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