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(meteorobs) Activity May 27/28, 1997?? and Interstellar Meteorites??
This note contains two UNRELATED points.....
(a) Last night (May 27/28) we (myself and 4 undergraduate honours student
researchers working in our lab) were testing out some equipment
modifications to our image intensified detection systems + a prototype wide
field fireball detection system, when we noticed an apparent high rate of
meteor activity on our image intensified video detection equipment. With a
system which usually detects about 8-20 sporadic meteors per hour we were
detecting apparent shower activity at a rate of about a meteor per minute.
After some scrambling we got a recording system going while the activity
was still moderately high. We have not yet had time to digitize and
analyze these "meteors" - I use the quotation because although they
certainly appeared to be meteors (we routinely get bugs, birds, bats,
planes and satellites - all of which are usually easily distinguished by
nonlinear or nonuniform velocity trails) we have not yet absolutely ruled
out migratory, high flying birds in very straight, very regular flight.
We've not yet computed a radiant, but it was low in the south to sout south
west sky during 10:30 to 12:30 pm local daylight time. The rate had
dropped sharply by 12:30 ADT (03:30 UT) and we packed up about 04:00 UT.
The rate seemed highest from about 01:15 to 02:15 UT. Although a few
visible meteors were seen, this shower (if they do turn out to be meteors)
seemed largely restricted to the magnitude range from +3 to +8 magnitude.
DON'T REGARD ANYTHING IN THIS NOTE AS DEFINITIVE - WE MAY DECIDE THEY ARE
NOT SHOWER METEORS WHEN WE GET THE DIGITIZATION AND ANALYSIS DONE. I DID
WANT TO ALERT PEOPLE IN CASE OTHERS HAVE OBSERVED UNUSUAL RATES OF FAINT
METOERS OR WANT TO SEARCH TONIGHT IN CASE THERE IS A REPEAT.
(b) Thanks to Cathy Hall for recently posting a good summary of our
"interstellar meteorite?" paper from JRASC. If anyone has questions or
comments, don't hesitate to ask/tell (rhawkes@mtadot ca). Also, I would add
that we now have two definitive optically detected interstellar origin
meteors (note I say meteors - these were around mass of 10^-8 kg -
certainly not meteorite producing). We have a detailed paper on this which
has been submitted to Monthly Notices and is currently being refereed (also
a short announcement submitted to JRASC). I will post to this list a brief
rundown once we have heard from the referees. It is our opinion that the
fraction of interstellar origin meteors goes up sharply with decreasing
mass. We are currently hoping to extend our detection capability somewhat,
and working on models for production of such meteors.
Bob Hawkes
Mt. Allison Meteor Group
Mount Allison University
Sackville, NB, Canada
MAMG