Smoke would dissipate into nothing.
Ash on the other hand is mass, right, and that looks like mass. Mass would be the byproduct of something at high temperature disintegrating. That is my guess.
Heat shield. Been done b4 many times. Think ceramic, lockalloy, titanium.
They are trying to gauge how much moar mileage they can get out of this balkan shit show. We do not have time to GAS about some shithole landmass across the pond. We have a lot to focus on here at home. We need to clean our house and take out the trash lest we fail the generations that succeed us. I agree, stay focused. Some evil people need to swing from the rope, that is our focus, that is our resolve.