A camera in Hawaii captured a rare “meteor cluster”. A video of a rare sky event shows that within a few seconds, more than a dozen meteors struck the sky.
According to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the Subaru Asahi Sky Camera is installed on the Subaru Telescope Dome in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and has been broadcasting live in the sky on the island since April 2021 Say In the press release. The goal is to “bring the wonderful starry sky of Mauna Kea to everyone”.
Passionate The live audience captured a very special sky event on July 14.At 3:58 a.m. (9:58 a.m. EST), they saw more than a dozen meteor Flowing through the starry sky of Maunakea in just 10 seconds.
“At first I thought it was just a series of small meteors, but when I double-checked the count, I was surprised to find that several small meteors were flying in the same direction at the same time,” an audience member said. According to NAOJ’s comment.
The discussion in the chat reminded the camera administrator of the Subaru Telescope in Tanaka that a “rare phenomenon” may have occurred. He then contacted Junichi Watanabe, deputy director of NAOJ, and the researchers were studying the video.
So what caused this rare outbreak? It is said to be related to the so-called “meteor cluster”.
The organization explained: “Meteor clusters are thought to be caused by the decomposition of meteorite material into small pieces for some reason within a short period of time before entering the Earth’s atmosphere,” and pointed out that this phenomenon is very rare and only a few cases have been reported. . More importantly, it was only discovered for the first time in the Leonid meteor shower in 1997.
Other cases of this phenomenon were recorded in the Czech Republic in September 2016, where eight meteor clusters appeared in just two seconds, and in January, seven bright meteors appeared in just three seconds.The latter was captured by a camera system owned by the University of Arizona, the video of which can also be found on the website of the International Meteor Organization (IMO) website.
Watanabe said in a press release: “The scientific significance of capturing this rare phenomenon is extremely significant, and the overall duration of this event is longer than before, so it is particularly significant.”
“The camera is located in Monakia, one of the best observation sites in the world. In addition to the latest developments in camera technology, this is also a major factor in capturing such rare events. I hope this camera will continue to capture similar rare phenomena in the future. ,” he added.
Photo: Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
