The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-09 00:00:00

THE FALLING STARS OF

NOVEMBER !

It must be sufficiently known to the reading public
generally, and especially to philosophical readers, that,
for a number of years past, falling stars in great num-
bers, though larger in some cases and fewer in others,
have been observed to fall, accompanied generally, or
preceded by, the aurora borealis, fiery balls, and other
meteoric phenomena. The periodical time when these
falling stars have been observed during fourteen or fif-
teen years past, has been a regular interval, extending
from the 9th to the 14th of November, and the observa-
tions which have ascertained this fact have not been con- •
fined to this country nor to Europe, the same phenomena
having been noticed precisely at the same time in
this country, in France and Germany, in Russia,
in America, and even in Australasia. It was
only in 1831, that scientific attention was first called
to the asteroids, or falling stars of November; but since
then the synchromism of their appearance, both as to
date and locality, has been accurately ascertained and
registered. On the 11th and 13th of November of that
year, Captain Bernard, when off the coast of Carthegena,
in South America, observed a shower of falling stars,
which, during three hours, he calculated to be at the
rate of two stars per minute; and precisely at the same
time Dr. Wright observed a similar shower in the pro-
vince of Ohio, in the United States. In 1832, on the
13th of November, a shower of shooting stars was ob-
served at Oremburg, in Asiatic Russia, between three
and four o'clock in the afternoon. They were in large
and continuous numbers, and traversed the horizon in- a
aegular current, from north-east to south-west. In 1834
numerous showers of shooting stars were seen
in most of the states of North America,
where the circumstance caused great excitement,
and was remr,cled in the principal journals.
The phenomenon occurred, as usual, on the 12th and
13th of November. In 1835 these appearances in Ame-
rica were resumed at the same date; and on the nights
of the 13th and 14th of the same year, M. Delejeune
observed at Lisle an igneous meteor, like a star, larger
and more brilliant than Jupiter, and which left behind
its track on its disappearance a shower of smaller stare.
simultaneouslnlB36, at the usualobservations
wered madetthe
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In
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the 12th, the celebrated astronomer and savant, M.
Arago, observed one hundred and ninety of these stars,
the tracks of which were principally confined to the
constellation Leo. At Bercy, at the same time, M.
Meret saw one hundred and twenty of these stars, hall
of which proceeded from the same constellation. At
Strasburg, at the same time, eighty-five were seen
by Professor Fangean, out of which fifty seven
were visible in the direction of Leo ; at Anglers, forty
nine were seen by Professor Moren ; at Rochfort.
twenty-three were seen by Lieutenant Salneuve ; and at
Aix La Chapelle, thirty-six were observed within the
space of three hours and three quarters, by Messrs.
Calais and Racine. Contemporaneous with these obser-
vations in France, one hundred and sixty of the same
falling stars were seen at Plymouth in the same special
interval of their periodical return, namely, between the

9th and 15th of November. On the 13th of
November, 1760, a large fire ball exploded with a loud
detonation, near Disson, in France, and set fire to a
house there. On the 12th of November, 1791, about
half-past six in the evening, a large and brilliant meteor,
which burst into a shower of stars, like a rocket, was
observed at Gottingen, by Professor Lichtenburg. On
Nov. 13, 1803, a remarkable meteor, called in the papers
a "fire-ball," passed over a considerable track in Eng-
land, and was observed by several persons at the same
time in different situations. In 1813, on the 10th of No-
vember, between six and seven o'clock in the evening,
England was again visited by a brilliant and detonating
meteor of considerable magnitude. Itt November, 1819,
a meteoric globe of fire was seen nearly at the same time
in Hayti, in Bohemia, and in England. On the 14th of
November, 1825, a large meteoric fire-ball exploded in
Scotland, and the years 1826 and 1827 were marked by
similar visitations in England. After this date
scientific attention was first drawn to the periodical ap-
pearance of showers of falling stars in different parts of
the world in November, and their occurrence was duly
la gist, red. From the foregoing details, to which
a vast series of meteorological coincidences
might be added (if we had space or lei-
sure), it appears that there are some distinctions in
the manifestatitris of these phenomenal, and that the
asteroids of the well :ascertained interval between the
9th and 14th of November, are only visible when they
penetrate the atmosphere of the earth. Sometimes they
apps ar in a numerous. and sometimes in a more limited
form. It will be tbund, on looking to the history of
their periodicalappearance, that phenomena of a mag-
netic or electrical description have been more regularly
seen. in this country than the more striking phenomena
of the showers of falling stars which occur in the
western hemisphere. Supporting himself on this fact.
the celebrated astronomer, M. Blot, has brought forward
a theory re,pecting these periodical meteors, which, in
concurrence with the scientific excitement caused by
the phenomena, and with the universal preparation of
scientific men for its observation, he read before the
" Academie des Sciences." M. Blot's theory is in per
fect concurrence with the atmospheric phenomena
of the Zodiacal light. His opinion is, that
the result is produced in consequence of the
earth (on reaching a particular point of its course on the
12th of November) coming in contact with that solar
nebulosity to which the aurora borealis is by the majo-
rity cf astronomers attributed. He says, " that on the
13th of November the earth arrives very near to the
ascending node of the nebulosity towards which she is
approaching, and towards which she will soon travel;
that she will operate by her attraction and by her colli-
sion on the material particles of the nebulosity which
will be at the same epoch near the ascending nodes of
their orbits, and at similar distances as the sun from the
earth, or very little different; from which would result
phenomena, that would be coincident as to direction and
time, with those that the periodical phenomena of No-
vember have presented. Finally, the usual, and much
more central passage of Mercury and Venus
through the region of the above described ne-
bulosity, must disperse innumerable multitudes of
its particles into orbits slightly inclined to the
ecliptic, and in every direction, so that the earth may
accidentally meet with them again in other points of its
course. These multitudes of particles, travelling in one
and the same direction, are the asteriods, or falling stars,
which we periodically encounter in November."
Thus far the astronomer Biot ; and there is good rea-
son to infer, from observations latterly made, that Biot's
theory is based upon correct data, and that the pheno-
mena of the solitary igneous meteors and of the showers
of stars in November, being synchronical, are connected
with and depending upon, the more familiar phenomena
of zodiacal lights. Sometimes the globular meteors
which have been described appear alone, and in consi-
derable volume. The most brilliant of them in No-
vember, 1836, shed a lustre equal to that of the planet
Venus. According to another Continental Professor of
Astronomy, M. Milet, "Stars, or fragments of stars,
do really fall to the earth ;" and thus it would seem that
the vulgar superstition of " falling stars " is philosophi-
cally correct.

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