E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
University of Toronto Archives/Natalie McMinn
This painting by artist and amateur astronomer Gustav Hahn depicts the meteor procession of Feb. 9, 1913, as seen in High Park, Toronto. Hahn estimated that the fireballs passed about halfway between Rigel and the Belt of Orion
By Miriam Kramer
Space.com
It may be the ultimate cosmic cold case, but the 100-year-old mystery of a huge group of fireballs flying in formation through Earth's atmosphere is finally a bit closer to being solved, scientists say.
By sifting through the archival records from the meteor procession that took place on Feb. 9, 1913, sleuthing stargazers pieced together the surprisingly large path of the rare astronomical event.
From Canada to Brazil, observers watched as hundreds of meteors streaked across the sky, but this wasn't any ordinary annual meteor shower. Because these meteors were traveling nearly parallel to the surface of the Earth, each piece of space dust and rock stayed visible for about a minute as each burned up in Earth's atmosphere. The procession lasted for several minutes.
"To most observers, the outstanding feature of the phenomenon was the slow, majestic motion of the bodies; and almost equally remarkable was the perfect formation which they retained," said Clarence Chant, a University of Toronto astronomer who observed the procession in 1913.
But 100 years later, scientists were still missing a piece of the astronomical puzzle. No one knew exactly how wide-reaching the meteor procession was. [Astronomers Chase 100-Year Meteor Mystery (Photos)]
Map courtesy Sky & Telescope
The red dots mark locations where the meteor procession of Feb. 9, 1913, was observed. The accounts from the ships at latitudes south of the S.S. Newlands were discovered during the preparation of this article. The ground track, projected onto the rotating Earth, deviates somewhat from a great circle, with the southern part of the track shifted several degrees to the west because of the rotation of the Earth during the time of flight from Canada to the shipping lanes below the equator.
Right after the procession, scientists put out a call in the journal Nature to find as many firsthand accounts of the event as possible. Reports trickled in from ships and countries around the world, but the varied logs put the line of sight for the procession stretching around 2,400 miles (3,862 km), from Saskatchewan, Canada to Bermuda.
A century later, two researchers decided to reopen the case and track down even more reports detailing the rain of fireballs.
"We have seven new accounts from ships' meteorological log books that extend the track farther than ever before," Don Olson, an astronomer at Texas State University, said in a statement. "This is the most complete map for this phenomenon that's ever been compiled. The track now goes more than 7,000 miles — that's more than a quarter of the way around the world. That's an almost unbelievable meteor event!"
The new findings are detailed in the February issue of Sky & Telescope magazine.
The astronomers suspect that the rare event could probably be seen even farther out into the Atlantic Ocean, but those records might be impossible to find. The last report, from a ship off the coast of Brazil, explained that fireballs could still be seen shooting through the sky as the log was entered.
These new findings come in the wake of a month full of space rocks making news. On Feb. 15, an asteroid half the size of a football field buzzed by the Earth and on the same day a meteor exploded over Russia, creating a devastating airburst that injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of buildings in the city of Chelyabinsk.
Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter @mirikramer or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
- How Meteor Showers Work (Infographic)
- Meteor Shower Quiz: How Well Do You Know 'Shooting Stars'?
- Meteor Hits Central Russia, 900+ Hurt | Video
Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Leave a Comment:
Ancient Aliens.
What else could it be? :-)
Pieces of the Mother Ship.
Forensic astronomy... "Fascinating..."
Beat that: Thunderbirds - Blue Angels. Nice tight formation. A picture (painting) is worth a thousand words. I would love to witness first hand something like that. Wow!!!!!!!
Any significance to the star formation to the left in the painting. Real? or just added for effect.
That woudl be the constellation Orion. Put there I suppose so people could reference where in the sy the event happened.
I agree - would have been awesome to see it.
Standing out side the Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon many, many years ago we witnessed a meteorite traveling, seemingly, parallel to the ground. Incredibly low and bright, it was so low (and I swear to you this is true) that you could actually hear it. We decided that it sounded like a roaring campfire. The only time I have ever seen anything other than "sky flashes". Awesome!
A quarter way around the earth means the trajectory bent through a 90 degree angle during the "meteor's" flight. I suppose this could be attributed to a gravitational slingshot, but that would require a pretty amazing coincidence of entry angle.
Many meteor showers have happened that have not been documented by scientists. Those scientists also like to assert that if you find a meteorite and they don't, it's not a meteorite. Only 'qualified scientists' can identify a meteorite. I sent a box of suspected meteorites to the University of Arizona for analysis and identification, but they somehow managed to lose the entire shipment. That's OK, because I still have more, larger fragments of the same samples that I have had authenticated through the University of North Texas, and they are in my collection. Arizona lost out on this find.
Bitter you are?
Why is it media writers and talking heads just absolutely have to distort everything possible in the hopes of grabbing larger headline type faces? "Devastating airburst?" What a crock of crap. Windows got broken and people got cut with flying glass and bonked on the head by flying debris. NOT ONE DEATH. And this is (GASP! THE HORROR! WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN??!!!) is a "devastating impact"?? Hardly. Nothing wrong with scientifice reporting, but at least make it accurate and realistic, not full of reality show hyper talk.
A devastating impact would have been a Winslow crater - sized hit in downtown Tehran or in this writer's back yard. Otherwise, spare me the exaggerations.
Yea, really....wasn't even worth a fart in a bathtub.
Well, it probably was worth that. Many windows broken in mid-Winter in Siberia!
I'm sure if Don Boyer were footing the bill for the medical treatment and building repairs in Chelyabinsk, he might be a little bit devastated..
I believe, although we obviously have missed out on the ancient splendid meteors which have danced and met their fiery fates across our earthly skies, we have on the other hand the wondrous blessings of modern technology. That has given us the abilities to capture images from all around this planet that most would never see.
Including those asteroids, comets, supernova, galaxies,black holes,nebulae and more spectacular treasures the universe has created.All of which continue to dazzle,educate and inspire mankind to reach for the stars. Can there be any greater time for man to live then now for what we can learn, explore, discover and dream of doing,despite the troubles? Imagine those who lived thousands of years ago, or just a hundred, anxious to have answers, but who knew they'd never find out. Like those who noted the shooting stars long ago.
I actually gave my first born son Orion, for his middle name. To remind him to never forget to look up in life, no matter how dark times may be.Just as in the blackest night, the stars are still shining bright above the earth, so don't lose faith. Just as they have for millennium.So will be my love for him. From birth on we had so many nights spent watching shooting stars over the years!
WindDancer...your writing was very poetic. But those who look up at the sky should not be escapists, or those who create problems on the ground and then look at the sky to distract others. You know what I mean? You know what I mean!
Self esteem, confidence, is such a fragile thing in a child. There is a saying, "Two men looked out of prison bars, one saw mud the other stars." We may not change our circumstances, but we can always change our attitude. That is one lesson the stars can teach us. Keep our chin up.Attitude determines altitude so often in life. People too often seek escape responsibility in drugs, alcohol,entertainment.Life will sends storms, is guaranteed.So keep your chin up, the night won't last forever.
Windancersong ~~~> ~~~> ~~~> Your posting reminded me of a poem I composed decades ago during a Take Back The Night March late on a dark night through the world's largest park which is completely contained within city boundaries, less than ten miles from the Mighty Mississippi.
Midst night's dark beauty
Exquisite stars impell me
Almost to madness!
Nice sleuthing. It's great that we can tease out answers from old information. One of the spin offs of ships always having observers and logs. Certainly there must be a lot more information in those records that can be tapped in the future.
Sail on, ye sailors! And keep yer eyes peeled.
Well gotta say all this stuffs got me looking up at the sky a lot more now..
To save mankind from following the dinosaurs the best way to defend against asteroids and comets is to use asteroids themselves in a game of cosmic billiards.
How so?
Simply go out and meet a few small to medium size asteroids coming between the Earth-Moon system say from 25 feet to 100 feet. Then land a huge craft on the asteroid (already been done so we know we can do it) and bolt the craft onto the asteroid in some fashion. Once secure, fire the engine when it's in the proper position (most asteroids are 'tumbling wildly') and nudge it off it's current course to a path which would be captured by the Moon as a small satellite moon in permanent orbit.
Once stabilized-refuel the asteroid and have it ready to blast out and slung around Earth's gravity to intercept incoming asteroids and do one of two things--hit them head on with a combined speed of about 50,000 to 100,000 mph and pulverize them both--or set it on a parallel course where it's gravity can be used to nudge the bigger dangerous asteroid away from an Earth impact.
Simple physics and imminently doable.
We have already landed several craft on an asteroid and impacted a couple as well. So we know we can do it with the super fast computers we have today guiding our 'bomb' to the target.
Not only will this work for small asteroids it can also work for dinosaur killer asteroids. We simply have to find a suitable 500 foot to 1000 foot asteroid to nudge into a Moon orbit (permanent) and send enough craft up and latch on to direct it out of the Moon's orbit and on it's way to intercepting the dinosaur killer when it's millions of miles away from us.
Not only could we secure a couple dozen 'impacter' asteroids in this fashion--but they will be there for generations to come to use as defenders of our planet. The kinetic energy in a stable orbit plus sling shotting it around Earth could easily speed a small asteroid to 100,000 mph or more--especially if another planet is used to assist this such as Jupiter.
Our computers are so accurate this is feasible although 50 years ago it wouldn't have been.
The cost isn't even outrageous either once the captured asteroids are in the Moon's orbit we can easily rocket up there to refuel them, do maintenance and keep them ready for when they are needed.
And if for nothing else at least we have some extra satellites to make the sky more interesting!!
Of course with a United Nations involvement on the whole thing it the costs could be shared.
After all it would be for the good of the planet--not just humans but for all species.
ET gone home ...
Im not reading the whole story but I think it was aliens even tho they are trying to say they were just asteroids. The thing is you just never know cause theres millions of planets.
wow !!! i`ve been waiting a 100 years to learn this ...
"Clues to mystery found"
What clues? they found some more accounts of it. That's all. They still haven't described how or why it happened.