I've been getting some emails and tweets alerting me to photos that purport to show the debris trail of a meteor after it apparently plunged into the ocean off the coast of Perth, Australia. After looking at the pictures, I'm pretty sure this is not a meteor, but an airplane contrail. First, the picture, from the Australian news site News.com.au:
It's a lovely photo! It shows the ocean off to the west of Perth, a blue sky, and what appears to be some sort of cloud-like vapor or debris trail. That's probably not just an average cloud: it's very linear, and shows signs of being sheared apart by winds. Cirrus clouds can look like this, but generally aren't all alone in a blue sky. There are other types of linear clouds (like alto- and cirrocumulus) but those tend to appear in parallel bands.
The cloud is also relatively low above ...
