For the first time in 58 years, a Phoenicids Meteor Shower-the historical meteor shower-was finally captured and recorded by a team of Japanese experts. The phenomenon occurred over the Atlantic Ocean. This was the first time since it was discovered in 1956 by a Japanese Antarctic expedition.
According to the team of experts, they had already anticipated the appearance of the Phoenicids Meteor Shower. This was based on the previous researches regarding its appearance. They had observed the meteor shower from the Canary Islands on Tuesday.
The 91-year-old Junji Nakamura who was part of the 1956 expedition was also able to observe the said phenomenon as he is part of the team of experts. The first occurrence was observed on December 5, 1956 on the observation ship Soya.
Phoenicids Meteor Shower is special in its way because it is the only recorded meteor shower in history that had an outburst of more than 100 meteors per hour. Since its first appearance, the most that has been recorded was 62 meteors. During the peak of the Phoenicids Meteor Shower in 1956, it had shown 300 meteors per hour-a record in history indeed. After that, there was no other report of meteor shower exhibiting that same behaviors as Phoenicids Meteor Shower did.
The recording last Tuesday had been anticipated since the experts found several dust trails known to have set about on Earth's surface on December 1. There were little differences observed in 2014 as compared to 1956.
At the Atlantic and the eastern part of South America is reported to be a good spot for observing this kind of phenomenon. Also, it is also visible in the western part of Africa and the northeast part of North America. There were also several meteors appearing at the direction of the team, as one of the experts-Junichi Watanabe-has mentioned.
One of the defining features of the Phoenicids Meteor Shower is its slow shooting of meteors. "That is what I remember. The calculation of the appearance was correct," the team quoted Nakamura.
The Phoenicids Meteor Shower was reportedly thought to have been discovered way back 1819. However, it has not been observed for long time.
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