A identified a new meteor shower associated with an asteroid not yet directly detected. The discovery was made by the scientist, after analyzing millions of records captured by monitoring networks around the planet.
The study identified a grouping of 282 meteors with similar characteristics, indicating a common origin. According to the research, the fragments were generated by an asteroid that passed very close to the Sun, which caused its fragmentation and the release of debris that reached the Earth’s atmosphere.
The data was collected by automated systems installed in countries such as Canada, Japan and regions in Europe and the United States. This equipment continuously records the night sky and makes it possible to track patterns of origin of space particles.
The fragments enter the atmosphere at more than 24 km/s and ignite almost instantly, forming so-called meteors. The analysis indicates that the material has intermediate characteristics: more resistant than comet debris, but still relatively fragile, suggesting a rocky origin.
According to researchers, the asteroid responsible cannot yet be observed by conventional telescopes. The expectation is that future missions, such as the space telescope NEO Surveyorprojected for 2027, will allow us to identify the object and deepen the study of its composition and trajectory.
