Phoenicids Meteor Shower - The historical meteor shower was finally recorded by a team of Japanese experts over the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in 58 years. The Phoenicids Meteor Shower was first discovered by a Japanese Antarctic expedition in 1956.
The team of experts reportedly had projected already the appearance of the Phoenicids Meteor Shower based on research from the previous appearance. They observed the Phoenicids Meteor Shower Tuesday from the Canary Islands.
One man from team is 91-year-old Junji Nakamura, who was also able to observe the phenomenon 58 years ago as a member of the 1956 expedition team, according to The Japan Times.
The first recorded observation of the Phoenicids Meteor Shower was in Dec. 5, 1956. That appearance historically produced the only recorded outburst of 100+ meteors per hour. Since then, there have only been 62 recorded meteors.
In 1972, 1973 and 1976 recorded activity was just 5 meteors per hour. In between 1977 and 1986, similar rates were also seen, according to UK Meteor Network.
The first observed Phoenicids Meteor Shower was by the Antarctic expedition team on the observation ship Soya. They reportedly cruised in the Indian Ocean during a South Pole expedition. At the peak, the Phoenicids Meteor Shower had shown 300 meteors per hour. After that appearance however, there had been no other report of the meteor shower ever appearing with the same outburst.
The Tuesday recording of the Phoenicids Meteor Shower had already been expected since several dust trails were known to have approached Earth on December 1 this week.
The condition in 2014 is similar to one in 1956, however, the whole value of fM in 2014 is about half as large as that in 1956. Independent website meteor.kaicho.net reports that observation of the Phoenicids Meteor Shower is very significant.
A good area of the observation condition is reportedly at the Atlantic and the eastern part of the South America. It was also observable in the western part of Africa and the northeast part of North America.
Junichi Watanabe, a member of the expert team, and of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, said their team was able to determine that what they had observed was the Phoenicids Meteor Shower because of several meteors appearing per hour and the direction that they streamed.
"That is what I remember. The calculation of the appearance was correct," said Nakamura as quoted by the team. They added that the slow shooting of the meteors is one of the features of the Phoenicids Meteor Shower.
The Phoenicids Meteor Shower was reportedly thought to have been discovered way back 1819. However, it has not been observed for long time.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
