On this day in space: Feb. 9, 1913: Great meteor procession of 1913

News
By last updated

On Feb. 9, 1913, hundreds of fireball meteors rained down on North America for no apparent reason.

On Feb. 9, 1913, hundreds of fireball meteors rained down on North America for no apparent reason.

A painting by Gustav Hahn of the 1913 Great Meteor Procession as seen from Toronto. (Image credit: Gustav Hahn/Public Domain)

With typical meteor showers, meteors appear to originate from the same point in the sky called the radiant. But these meteors weren't shooting out from any kind of radiant. Instead, they seemed to be flying in formation and moving horizontally through the sky, parallel to Earth's surface. The meteors were also moving unusually slow, and the procession lasted for several minutes.

To this day, astronomers aren't really sure what was up with this bizarre meteor shower.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.