The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-11-24
The November ETeteors.

account Of his meteoric observations:
On Monday night, November 12, a
company of observers at this place
counted COG shooting stars in five
hours and twenty minutes, which is
about four times the average number
visible for the same period through
out the year. On Tuesday night,
November 13, another company
counted 8Sl shooting stars in five
hours, which is five times the ave-
rage null ber On Wednesday night,
the sky was overcast. so that no OBJ
seryation could be made. We con-
clude, then, that the number of
shooting stars visible about the 18th
was very remarkable; nevertheless.
this display is not to be compared
with November 13, 1888, in which the
number of meteors was variously esti-
mated at from 10000 to 10000 per
h Z.
The grand display, therefore, which
it was supposed might. possibly occur
this year, has not been witnessed in
the United States, and probably not
in Europe, or it would have been an
nounced to US by telegraph. It may
have been witnessed in Asia or the
Pacific Ocean; but if such had been
the case, 1t seems probable that the
number visible in the United States
would have been greater than it wa.
The telegram in this mornings He
RAID, purporting to have como from
Greenwich, is evidently spurious. It
IS, therefore, probable that there has
not been witnessed this year, in any
part of the world, a display of me-
teors at all, to be compared with the
grand display of 1888.
AS an unusual interest on this sub
lect appears to have been excited,
some of your readers may wish an an
swer to the question: What are shoot
ing stars? aud how do you account
for their periodical display in un-
usual numbers? Shooting stars may,
without much impropriety, be called
little comets. Each meteor is small
body, generally of very little density,
revolving about the sun in On elliptic
orbit, and governed 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 de-
crease from year to year. The total
number of these bodies, therefore,
belonging to our solar system, must
be reckoned by millions of millions.
The earth, in its motion about the
sun, with velocity of nineteen miles
per second, is continually encounter
ing more or less Of these bodies, and
they plunge into our atmosphere with
velocities varying from ten to forty
miles per second, by which means
heat is developed sufficient to ignite
them, and they are entirely con-
sumed, generally in single second,
and at an elevation of about fiftv
miles above the earth's surface. Oc-
caslonally we encounter bodies Of
greater density, which cannot be SO
readily consumed, and they reach the
earth's surface sometimes entire, and
at other times in fragmentary con-
dltlon. Samples of such meteors
are to be found in all mineralocical
collections of this country and Eu-
rope.
The periodical display of shooting
stars IN unusual numbers indicates
that they are not distributed uni
formly y throughout the solar system.
but are collected in vast numbers in
certain regions, while in other regions
they are comparatively few. Shoot
ing stars are annually seen in great
numbers on the 10th of August, and
since each meteor is moving in it's
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 ar
ranged in ring or zone intersecting
the earth's orbit at point which the
earth passes on the 10th of August.
Tn order to explain the recurrence
o. an unusual number of shooting
stars year after year, about the 18th
OF November, we suppose that there
IS another ring of these minute
bodies, somewhat inclined to the
ecliptic. 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
this portion which the earth encoun-
ters at intervals Of about thirty-three
years. According to Professor Fl. A.
Newton, the reason that this display
returns only once in thirty-three
years is the following: Each meteor