The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1866-12-08
November Meteors-Fiftee Hundred
Shooting stars Observed at Yale Col
lege@1etter from Professor Loomis

Shooting stars Observed at Yale Col
legs-Letter from Professor Loonig
s-tt@ YAM GoELkGR. November Is.
To the Editor.Qf the Egeniag Post:
On Monday night November 10Th. n
conlpany Of observers ut this place counted
six hundred and RinctyssiU shooting stars in.
five hours and twenty minutes, which ia
3 about four times the average number visible
for the same period throughout the year on
Tuesday night, November 18th another
company counted eight bundled and eiehtg-
one shooting stare in, five hours which Is
five times the ayeFase number On Wednes-
day night the sky was overcast so that no
ezQbscpYatiOns could be made. We conclnde,
then, that the number Of shooting stars
visible about the 18th was very remarkable;
nevertE eieFs, this display is MOTTO be COM
pared with that Of November g. 1888 in
which the number Of mcte0rs was variousy
estimated at from ten thOu5an1 81 thirty
thousand per hour. The grand display
therefore, which it was supposed might pos
sibly occur this-years has not been witnessed
in the United States and probably not in
Europe, or it would have been announced
to US by telegreph, 1T lngy have been wit
messed in Asia or the Pacific Ocean, but
If such had been the case Il seems probable
that the number visible IN the United States
w0uld have been greater than it was. The
telegram IL this Mornings Herald, purport-
ing 70 come from Greenwich, is evidently
spurious. 1t is therefore pI6Bable eiiat there
mas not been witnessed this year, in any
portion Of tho world, display of meteors at
all to be compared with the grand display Of
1888. z9I-
As an unusual interest on this subiect APP
pears to have been excited, some Of your
readers may wish an answer 70 the questions,
What are shooting stars and, How DO we
account for their periodical display IN an
usual numbers? Shooting stars may. with
out much improperly, be called little comets
Zach meteor is. a small body, generally OF
very little density, revolving about the sun in
an elliptic orbit, and governed by the same
laws as the larger planets, Jupiter and
Saturn. The average humber Of these
bodies which encounter the earth every day
is several millisns, and still there is no per-
ceptible decrease from year to year The
total number Of these bodies, therefore, be-
longing to our solar system must be reck-
oned by millions The earth, in its motion
about the sun with a velocity OF nineteen
miles per second, is continually encounter
ing more or less Of these bodies, and they
plnnge into our atmosphere with VeIocities
varying from ten to forty miles per second
by which means heat Is developed sufficient
to ignite them, and they are entirely con-
stunned GENERALLY In single second, and at
an elevation of about fifty miles above the
earths surface. Ocoasionly we encounter
bodies Of q greater density, which cannot
be so readily consumed, and they reach the
earth s surface, sometimes entire and at other
times in fragmentary condition. Samples
Of such meteors are to be found in all the
large meteorological collections Of this eoun-
try and Europe. ~
voThe periodical display of shooting stars
in unusual numbers indicates that they are
not distributed uniformly throughout the
solar system, are collected in vast mum
bers in certain regions while in other regions
there are comparatively few, Shooting stars
are annually seen 10 great numbers on the
10TH of August, and since each meteor is
moving initE Orbitwith great velocity, while
every year we find large numbers of them
near the same point Of the earth s orbit we
conclude that they are arranged in ring or
zone, intersectipg the earth's orbit at point
which the earth passes on the10th Of August
In order to explain the recurrence Of an
unusual number of shooting stars year after
year, about the 18Th of November, we sup
Y,oeo that tooro another ring OF these
minute bodies, somewhat inclined TO the
epliptic. Throughout the different portions
Of this ring the meteOrs are distributed IN
very unequal numbers; but there is one
portion where the number is immensely
great and it Is thisp portion which the earth
encounters at intervals Of about thirty three
years, ..
According to Professor H. A. Newton
the reason that this display returnes only
once IN thirty-three years is the following :
Each meteor in the November group moves
IN an orbit which is nearly circular, with a
main distance from the sun either a little
less or little greater than that of the earth
and period about eleven days or greater
than one year The earth encountered the
.densest portionOf this group in November,
1888, but the next year this portion passed
eleven days. less or before or after the earth
returned to that point Of It's orbit; the fol-
lowing year the difference amounted to
twenty-five days; so that at the end Of about
thirty-three it must gain or lose one entire
revolution, and return nearly TO the position
where it must encounter the earth. If we
receive no accounts of an unusual display
of meteors this week in any part of the
world we shall look with considerable conf
dence for such display on November IA
1867