Meteor procession explained

A meteor procession occurs when an Earth-grazing meteor breaks apart, and the fragments travel across the sky in the same path. According to physicist Donald Olson, only four occurrences are known:^[1]

• 18 August 1783 Great Meteor^{[1] [2]}
• 20 July 1860 Great Meteor; believed by Olson to be the event referred to in Walt Whitman's poem Year of Meteors, 1859–60^{[3] [4]}
• 21 December 1876 Great Meteor; sighted over Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania^[5]
• 9 February 1913 Great Meteor Procession; a chain of slow, large meteors moving from northwest to southeast, sighted over North America, particularly in Canada, the North Atlantic and the Tropical South Atlantic

External links

• Meteors, Meteoroids, and Meteorites

Notes and References

1. Falk . Dan . Forensic astronomer solves Walt Whitman mystery: CultureLab (blog) . https://web.archive.org/web/20160321111745/https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/06/the-forensic-astronomer-donald-olson.php . 21 March 2016 . . 1 June 2010 . 8 February 2023.
2. Notes and Queries . . 8 . 221–222 . June 1914 . 1914JRASC...8..221. . 8 February 2023.
3. Forensic astronomer solves Walt Whitman mystery . . 1 June 2010 . 8 February 2023.
4. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20100605014144/http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/02/4448882-150-year-old-meteor-mystery-solved . 150-year-old meteor mystery solved . . 2 June 2010 . 5 June 2010 . 8 February 2023 .
5. Book: Report of the forty-seventh meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science: Held at Plymouth in August 1877 . 149–153 . . 1878 . Observations of luminous meteors . Herschel . Alexander Stewart . Alexander Stewart Herschel . https://archive.org/stream/reportannualmee05sciegoog#page/n256/mode/2up.