Word: vapor
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...fraction of a second later the main mass of iron hit the rock. It was traveling so fast that the heat of impact vaporized most of it. As the fiery jet of metallic vapor spurted out of the crater, the second meteorite struck and burrowed under the rim of rock tilted upward by the first. Most of it, too, turned into iron vapor and spurted into...
...standard Wilson cloud chamber for making atomic particles visible is a rather complicated apparatus. It contains moist air and a movable diaphragm or piston to rarefy it suddenly. This action cools the air by expansion and makes it "supersaturated" with water vapor which will condense into water droplets if given proper nuclei to condense upon. Fast-moving atomic particles provide the nuclei by ionizing (electrifying) the normally neutral atoms of the air. So particles (e.g., cosmic rays from outer space) that pass through the cloud chamber become visible as thin white trails of water droplets...
...chamber in operation, the felt under its cover is saturated with methyl (wood) alcohol. The alcohol vapor diffuses downward, becoming colder as it approaches the dry ice at the bottom. At some point in its downward motion it makes the air supersaturated. In this sensitive layer, cosmic rays or other fast-moving atomic particles leave trails that show up in a flashlight beam as brilliant white streaks...
Astronomers used to think that only good-sized meteorites reach the earth intact, while the smaller ones "burn" to vapor on passing through the atmosphere. But Dr. H. E. Landsberg at the U.S. Weather Bureau had another idea. He smeared some microscope slides with glycerin and exposed them on a mountaintop just before a shower of "Giacobinid" meteors* was expected. Before and during the shower, he caught nothing unusual. But for many days after the shower he caught highly magnetic particles unlike anything found in normal dust-catches...
...seconds the Viking rose properly, leaving a trail of white vapor that twisted with the wind. Then the fuel stopped burning, prematurely. When its fire went out, the rocket was 10.5 miles up and rising at 1,775 m.p.h. Coasting upward on momentum, it reached an altitude of 33 miles and started down again...