1913 Great Meteor Procession
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The 1913 Great Meteor Procession occurred on February 9, 1913.RASC.ca – The Great Meteor Procession (GMP) of 1913 February 9
/ref>RedOrbit – 100th Anniversary: Uncovering The Range Of The Great Meteor Procession Of 1913
/ref> It was a
meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as micr ...
ic phenomenon reported from locations across Canada, the northeastern United States, and
Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...
, and from many ships at sea, including eight off Brazil, giving a total recorded
ground track A ground track or ground trace is the path on the surface of a planet directly below an aircraft's or satellite's trajectory. In the case of satellites, it is also known as a suborbital track, and is the vertical projection of the satellite's or ...
of over . The meteors were particularly unusual in that there was no apparent radiant, that is to say, no point in the sky from which the meteors appeared to originate. The observations were analysed in detail, later the same year, by the astronomer
Clarence Chant Clarence Augustus Chant (May 31, 1865 – November 18, 1956) was a Canadian astronomer and physicist. Early life and education Chant was born in Hagerman's Corners, Ontario to Christopher Chant and Elizabeth Croft. In 1882 he attended Mark ...
, leading him to conclude that as all accounts were positioned along a
great circle In mathematics, a great circle or orthodrome is the circular intersection of a sphere and a plane passing through the sphere's center point. Any arc of a great circle is a geodesic of the sphere, so that great circles in spherical geomet ...
arc, the source had been a small, short-lived
natural satellite A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are often colloquially referred to as ''moons'' ...
of the Earth. John A. O'Keefe, who conducted several studies of the event, proposed that the meteors should be referred to as the ''Cyrillids'', in reference to the feast day of
Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria ( grc, Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας; cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲕⲩⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲩ ⲁ̅ also ⲡⲓ̀ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲕⲓⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲥ;  376 – 444) was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444 ...
(February 9 in the
Roman Catholic calendar The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgical rite is in use. These celebra ...
from 1882 to 1969).


Events of February 9

The evening of February 9 was cloudy across much of the densely populated
northeast United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic list of regions of the United States, region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast ...
, meaning that some 30 million potential observers were for the most part unaware of the phenomenon.Pickering, 1922 (Part I), 633 Nevertheless, more than a hundred individual reports – largely from more remote areas of Canada – were later collected by
Clarence Chant Clarence Augustus Chant (May 31, 1865 – November 18, 1956) was a Canadian astronomer and physicist. Early life and education Chant was born in Hagerman's Corners, Ontario to Christopher Chant and Elizabeth Croft. In 1882 he attended Mark ...
, with additional observations unearthed by later researchers.. Contains numerous witness statements and drawings. At around 21hr EST, witnesses were surprised to see a procession of between 40 and 60 bright, slow-moving fireballs moving from horizon to horizon in a practically identical path. Individual fireballs were visible for at least 30 to 40 seconds, and the entire procession took some 5 minutes to cross the sky. An observer at Appin, Ontario, described its appearance at one of the most easterly parts of its track across Canada:
A huge meteor appeared travelling from northwest by west to southeast, which, as it approached, was seen to be in two parts and looked like two bars of flaming material, one following the other. They were throwing out a constant stream of sparks and after they had passed they shot out balls of fire straight ahead that travelled more rapidly than the main bodies. They seemed to pass over slowly and were in sight about five minutes. Immediately after their disappearance in the southeast a ball of clear fire, that looked like a big star, passed across the sky in their wake. This ball did not have a tail or show sparks of any kind. Instead of being yellow like the meteors, it was clear like a star.
Subsequent observers also noted a large, white, tail-less body bringing up the rear, but the various bodies making up the
meteor procession 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 a few occurrences are known, including:Falk, DanForensic astronomer solves ...
continued to disintegrate and to travel at different rates throughout their course, so that by the time observations were made in Bermuda, the leading bodies were described as "like large arc lights in appearance, slightly violet in colour", followed closely by yellow and red fragments.Pickering, 1923 (Part II), 102 Research carried out in the 1950s by Alexander D. Mebane uncovered a handful of reports from newspaper archives in the northern United States. At
Escanaba, Michigan Escanaba ( ), commonly shortened to Esky, is a port city in Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located on Little Bay de Noc in the state's Upper Peninsula. The population was 12,616 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city i ...
, the ''
Press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...
'' stated the "end of the world was apprehended by many" as numerous meteors travelled across the northern horizon. In
Batavia, New York Batavia is a city in and the county seat of Genesee County, New York, United States. It is near the center of the county, surrounded by the Town of Batavia, which is a separate municipality. Batavia's population as of the 2020 census was 15,6 ...
, a few observers saw the meteors and many people heard a thundering noise, while other reports were made in Nunda- Dansville, New York (where several residents again thought the world was ending) and
Osceola, Pennsylvania Osceola Township is a township in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 586 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 13.9 square miles (36.1  ...
.Mebane, 413–414


February 10

One curious feature of the reports, highlighted by Mebane, was that several appeared to indicate a second meteor procession on the same course around 5 hours later, although the Earth's rotation meant that there was no obvious mechanism to explain this. One observer, an A. W. Brown from
Thamesville, Ontario Thamesville is a community in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the junction of former provincial Highways 2 and 21, between Chatham and London. Its name comes from the Thames River that flows nearby and the suffix -"ville". ...
, reported seeing both the initial meteor procession and a second one on the same course at 02:20 the next morning.Mebane, 418 Chant's original report also referred to a series of three groups of "dark objects" which passed, on the same course as the previous meteors, from west to east over Toronto on the afternoon of February 10, which he suggested were "something of a meteoric nature".


Accompanying sounds

William Henry Pickering William Henry Pickering (February 15, 1858 – January 16, 1938) was an American astronomer. Pickering constructed and established several observatories or astronomical observation stations, notably including Percival Lowell's Flagstaff Observ ...
noted that at eight stations in Canada a trembling of the house or ground was felt.Pickering, 1923 (Part II), 96 In many other places loud, thunder-like sounds were heard, occasionally by people who had not seen the meteors themselves. Pickering used the sound reports to perform a check on the height of the meteors, which he calculated at .Pickering, 1923 (Part II), 100


Analysis

The first detailed study of the reports was produced by the Canadian astronomer
Clarence Chant Clarence Augustus Chant (May 31, 1865 – November 18, 1956) was a Canadian astronomer and physicist. Early life and education Chant was born in Hagerman's Corners, Ontario to Christopher Chant and Elizabeth Croft. In 1882 he attended Mark ...
, who wrote about the meteors in vol. 7 of the ''Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada''. The orbit was later discussed by Pickering and G. J. Burns, who concluded that it was essentially satellitic. Although this explanation was later attacked by Charles Wylie, who attempted to prove that the shower had a radiant, further studies by
Lincoln LaPaz Lincoln LaPaz (February 12, 1897 – October 19, 1985) was an American astronomer from the University of New Mexico and a pioneer in the study of meteors. Early life and education He was born in Wichita, Kansas on February 12, 1897 to Charles Me ...
(who criticised Wylie's methods as "unscientific") and John O'Keefe showed that the meteors had most likely represented a body, or group of bodies, which had been temporarily captured into orbit about the Earth before disintegrating. O'Keefe later suggested that the meteors, which he referred to as the "Cyrillids", could have in fact represented the last remnant of a circumterrestrial
ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
, formed from the ejecta of a postulated lunar volcano. This theory was a development of O'Keefe's unusual hypothesis on the origin of
tektites Tektites (from grc, τηκτός , meaning 'molten') are gravel-sized bodies composed of black, green, brown or grey natural glass formed from terrestrial debris ejected during meteorite impacts. The term was coined by Austrian geologist Franz ...
.


References


External links


Condon Report, Conception: The Great Fireball of 9 February 1913
pp. 960–2 {{Modern impact events Meteoroids 1913 in science 1913 in the United States 1913 in Canada 19130209 Modern Earth impact events February 1913 events in North America