A British amateur astronomer had the experience of a life-time to begin with this month when he captured the dramatic wad of a nearby meteor explosionon video .
As reported by theBristol Post , 58 - class - old Derek Robson , of Loughborough , in Leicestershire puts a motion - activated camera in his backyard each fall in orderliness to record seasonal meteor cascade . Though he ’s witness many a infinite rock streaking through the atmosphere using this Seth - up , none compare to what he documented in the early dawn hours of November 10 .
At 5:07 am local time , a large fireball appear in the sky in front of the constellation Orion and flashes bright for about a 2d before go away into the darkness .
" normally I just get planes and bird and thing like that – but when I see the footage back and regard this I was simply stunned , ” Robson told the outlet , remark that he was asleep at the clock time . “ I could n’t believe my eyes and I was jump in the air for delight – I was so happy that I have it .
The retired analytic pill roller estimates that the meteoroid disintegrate in the air somewhere near to Bristol , which is just over 200 kilometers ( 130 miles ) aside . After analyzing his footage , he also concluded that the burn rock was 275 prison term brighter than Sirius – the brightest star in Earth ’s sky .
“ I ’m constantly on the look - out as I ’m into meteor astronomy . I ’ve enchant smaller meteorite but never anything as big and as lustrous as this , ” Robson summate . “ It ’s awful to think they could have been orbit the Sun for meg of years . ”
Though the term is used broadly , a meteoris not in reality a celestial torso in its own right , but rather the name given to chunks of asteroids or other small interplanetary objects that have been commit into Earth ’s standard pressure . Any tangible bits of material that hold up this intense journey and ground on the Earth ’s Earth’s surface are referred to as meteorite .
According toNASA , about 97,000 pounds ( 44,000 kilograms ) of meteoritical material fall on Earth each day and several meteors per 60 minutes can usually be visit on any given night .
But during meteor shower , cyclic events when Earth ’s sphere intersects with clusters of rocky and/or icy junk , we might see as many as300 per 60 minutes .
If you ’re interested in keep the celestial spectacle of a meteoroid shower , thenext event is the Geminids(showers are appoint for the configuration they look out of the sky nigh ) , peaking on December 13 .
[ H / T : Bristol Post ]