The 1860 Great Meteor procession occurred on July 20, 1860. It was an extremely rare

meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

ic phenomenon reported from locations across the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. American landscape painter Frederic Church saw and painted a spectacular string of fireball

s across the Catskill evening sky, an extremely rare Earth-grazing

meteor procession A meteor procession occurs when an Earth-grazing meteor breaks apart, and the fragments travel across the sky in the same path. According to physicist Donald Olson, only four occurrences are known: * 18 August 1783 Great Meteor * 20 July 186 ...

. It is believed that this was the event referred to in the poem ''Year of Meteors, 1859-60'', by

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

. In 2010, 150 years later, it was determined to be an Earth-grazing meteor procession.

References

{{Modern impact events Meteoroids Great Meteor Great Meteor 18600720 Modern Earth impact events Earth-grazing fireballs Great Meteor 19th-century astronomical events

See also

References