Meteor Astronomy

The Global Meteor Network (GMN) operates 450+ stations in 80+ countries. Nepal is entirely absent. A new geographic position means new shower radiant visibility, new flux statistics, and immediate scientific value from the first detection.

Dhakal et al. (2023) — New Constraints on Macroscopic Dark Matter Using Radar Meteor Detectors — Physical Review D 107, 043026. This paper demonstrates that radar meteor detection systems — which detect the radio-wave reflections from ionization trails that meteoroids leave in the atmosphere — can also detect macroscopic dark-matter candidates with large masses and large nuclear interaction cross sections, which leave identical ionization signatures. A radar meteor station in Nepal contributes immediately to both the GMN and to dark-matter searches from a new geographic position.