A team of astronomers from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California (USA) has discovered a considerable group of new meteor showers, not as splendid as those we already know as the Léonids or the Perseids, but with sufficient relevance. as to be included in the official list of Meteor Showers . The finding has been published in the journals Nature and Icaro .
This phenomenon, followed by professionals and fans of night sky vision, will increase our astronomical calendar with 86 new meteor showers. “The good thing is that, in addition to monitoring the meteors in the sky, there is now also a three-dimensional image of how the dust is distributed in the Solar System ,” explains Peter Jenniskens, leader of the study.
Astronomers argue that the base of these newly discovered meteor showers are particles the size of a grain of sand but also have other larger particles that would survive their passage through the atmosphere and could even cause damage to the surface of the Earth .
The discovery has been possible thanks to new radar and video-tracking systems that have been recorded by observers from around the world more than 750 possible meteor showers sent to the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
With more than 50 cameras in three places and directed in different directions in northern California, they managed, after analyzing more than 250,000 meteors , to discard the already known rains and add 86 new ones not previously detected. One of them comes from the constellation La Vela and will be visible in the Southern Hemisphere during the first days of December.
