Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-11-20
QD9lo Statesn.IrI1a.r'r... NJ n.
THE NOVEMBER METEORs,
Fifteen Hundred shooting stars OBJ
served at ale ,COIIege-Letter from
PIOfessOr LOOmis. ... .,,.,,,.I, ....,..,
h. YALE COLLEGE, November II

PIOfessOF- LOOmis. -...., ,,.,...,. ,..,.,
IA, YALE COLLEGE, November l5.
To the Editor Of the, Eventng Post: '.'''
On Monday night, November II, a com
pany Of observers at this place counted six
hundred and ninety-six shooting stars in
five hours and twenty minutes, which is
about four times the average number visible
Tor the same period throughout the year.
On Tuesday night, November l3, another
company counted eight hundred and eighty
one shooting stars in five hours, which IS
five times the average number. On Wed
nesday night the sky was overcast, so that
no observations could be made. We con-
clude, then, that the number of shooting
stars visible about the 18th was very re-
markable; nevertheless this display Is not
to be compared with that of November l3,
1888, in which the number OF meteors was
variously estimated at from ten thousand
to thirty thousand per hour. The grand
display, therefore, which it was supposed
might possibly occur this year, has not been
witnessed in the United States, and proba-
bly, not in Europe, or it would have been
announced to us by telegraph. 1t may have
been witnessed in Asia or the Pacific Ocean,
but il such had been the case il seems prob
able that the number visible in the United
States would have been greater than 1t was.
- The telegram in this mornings Herald,
purporting to have come from Greenwich,
Is evidently spurious. 1t is therefore prob
able that there has not been witnessed this
year in any part Of the world a display OF
meteors at all to be compared with the
grand display of 1888. ...g r...r.a..
AS an unusual interest in this subject ap-
pears to hav6 been excited, some OF your
readers may wish an answer to the ques-
II AZ. oh ufar re
do we account for their periodical display
in unusual numbersP Shooting stars may,
without much improperly, be called little
comets. Each meteor is small body,
generally of very little density, revolving
about the sun in an elliptic orbit, and gov
erned by the same laws as the larger planets
Jupiter and Saturn. The average number
of these bodies which encounter the earth
every day is several millions, and still there
| is no perceptible decrease from year to year.
| The total number ofthese bodies, therefore,
belonging to our solar system must be reck-
oned by millions of millions. The earth in
its motion about the sun, with a velocity OF
nineteen miles per second, is continually
encountering more or less OF these bodies,
and they plunge into our atmosphere with
yelocities varying from ten to forty miles
per second, by which means heat is deVel-
oped sufficient to ignite them, and they are
entirely consumed, generally in single
second, and at an elevation of about fifty
miles above the earth's surface. Occasion
ally we encounter bodies of greater dem
sity, which can not be so readily consumed,
| and they reach the earth's surface, some
| times entire and at other times in frag-
! mentary condition. Samples of such me-
! teors are to be found in all the large min
eralogical collections of this country and
| Europe: HRa" . u.I ..a ..a
The periodical display of shooting stars
| in unusual numbers indicates that they are
not distributed uniformly throughout the
solar system, but are collected in vast num-
bersin certain regions, while in other re-
gions there are comparatively few. Shoot
ing stars are annually seen in great num-
bers on the 10th of August, and since each
meteor is moving in Is orbit with 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 a ring or zone, interseeting the
earth's orbit at point which the earth
passes on the 10th of August. v ...q.
In order to explain the recurrence OF an
unusual number of shooting stars year af-
teryear, about the 18th of November, we
suppose that there Is another ring ofthese
minute bodies, somewhat inclined to the
ecliptic. Throughout the different por-
tions OF this ring the meteors are distributed
in very unequal numbers; but thereis one
portion where the number is immensely
great, and it is this portion which the earth
encounters at intervals of about thirty
three years. A.. D ... --.r. - :, qt..,r.
According to Professor II. A. Newton,
the reason that this display returns only
once in thirty three wears is the following:
Each meteor ofthe November group moves
i'm an orbit which is nearly circular, with a
mean distance from the sun either little
less or little greater than that Of the earth,
and a period about eleven days less or
greater than one year. The earth encoun-
tered the densest portion of this group, in
November, 1888; but the next year this
portion passed eleven days before or after
the earth returned to that point of its orbit;
the following year the difference amounted
to twenty-five days; so that at the end Of
about thirty-three years it must gain or
lose one entire revolution, and return near
lyto the position where it must encounter
the earth. II we receive no accounts of an
unusual display of meteors this week in
any part of the world, we shall look with
considerable confidence for such a display
on November IA 1867. r.. L.