Forensic Astronomer Solve Whitman Mystery

“—Nor the comet that came unannounced out of the north, flaring in heaven; 

Nor the strange huge meteor procession, dazzling and clear, shooting over our heads,     

(A moment, a moment long, it sail’d its balls of unearthly light over our heads,

Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;)     

—Of such, and fitful as they, I sing….” (Walt Whitman, “Year of Meteors”)

The “great comet” Whitman mentions is easily identified: there was a Great Comet of 1860, visible worldwide. Some scholars assumed that Whitman was also inspired by the 1833 Leonid meteor storm, the 1858 Leonids, or an 1859 fireball. However, based on Whitman’s description, Olson reasoned that the second event must be a meteor procession — an extremely rare event. In fact, only three such instances have been found so far in the historical record. It happens when a meteor “grazes” the Earth by passing through the atmosphere and then heading back out into interplanetary space, never hitting terra firma.

But sometimes when the meteor grazes the Earth’s atmosphere, it breaks up, and creates multiple meteors, all traveling in nearly identical path. Olson knew of a meteor procession occurring in 1783, and another in 1913, but could there be any historical record of another, right around the time of Whitman’s poem?

Read in full news.discovery.com/space/poetry-in-motion-forensic-astronomers-solve-whitman-mystery.html