February 9, 1913: the Nice Meteor Procession
An odd and still-unexplained parade of meteors on this date dazzled viewers in Canada, the northeastern United States and ships within the Atlantic all the way in which all the way down to Brazil. The origin of the occasion known as the Nice Meteor Procession of 1913, after greater than a century, remains to be unknown.
This procession of meteors was in contrast to other meteor showers, the place zippy streaks of sunshine all radiate outward from a single level. The February 9, 1913, meteors appeared to cross the sky in formation, on practically an identical paths. Their tempo throughout the sky was stately and measured.
At present in science: February 9, 1913. An odd & unexplained parade of meteors on this date dazzled viewers in Canada, the US, & ships within the Atlantic all the way in which to Brazil. The occasion is normally identified by the title the Nice Meteor Procession of 1913, & its origins are nonetheless unknown. pic.twitter.com/86HdyEkKkD
— David Criminal (@StellarInsights) February 9, 2021
The Meteor Procession traveled virtually horizontally and a few heard sound
There was one other distinction between your common meteor and the 1913 procession. Regular meteors are likely to plunge into Earth’s ambiance and vaporize resulting from friction with the air. Meteors in annual showers final solely seconds. The 1913 meteors appeared to journey virtually horizontally, practically parallel to the Earth’s floor, and thus they remained seen to a single observer for a couple of minute, and your entire procession took a number of minutes to go by.
Plus, observers reported rumblings and different unusual sounds, suggesting the 1913 meteors may have been comparatively near Earth after they disintegrated.
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Theories concerning the procession
Some astronomers later concluded that – as a result of all sightings of the meteor procession occurred alongside a nice circle arc – the supply had been a small, short-lived pure satellite of Earth – a temporary second moon. Different theories tried to show there was a radiant level for this bathe, simply as for any atypical meteor bathe.
The densely populated northeastern United States was cloudy on the night of February 9, 1913. So 30 million potential observers have been for essentially the most half unaware of the phenomenon. A 1913 report within the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada by Clarence Chant, who collected over 100 eyewitness reviews of the occasion, described the scene like this:
An enormous meteor appeared touring from northwest by west to southeast, which, because it approached, was seen to be in two elements and seemed like two bars of flaming materials, one following the opposite. They have been throwing out a relentless stream of sparks and after that they had handed they shot out balls of fireplace straight forward that travelled extra quickly than the principle our bodies.
They appeared to go over slowly and have been in sight about 5 minutes. Instantly after their disappearance within the southeast a ball of clear hearth, that seemed like a giant star, handed throughout the sky of their wake. This ball didn’t have a tail or present sparks of any sort. As a substitute of being yellow just like the meteors, it was clear like a star.
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A brand new examine
Don Olson of Texas State College and Steve Hutcheon of the Astronomical Affiliation of Queensland, Australia, have studied this phenomenon. Sifting by way of an enormous array of archival materials, the crew found seven ship’s reviews, all beforehand unknown, extending the established monitor of the procession by a further thousand miles. They reported their leads to a 2013 situation of Sky & Telescope journal. Read more about Olson and Hutcheon’s findings here.
In the meantime, the precise origin of the meteors within the 1913 meteor procession remains to be a thriller and will by no means be identified for certain.
Backside line: On February 9, 1913, fortunate observers witnessed the Nice Meteor Procession, when brilliant meteors soared horizontally throughout the sky for minutes at a time.