The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-09-03
SHOOTING STARS.

SHOUTING STARS.
l SUPPOSE that each one of you has
often seen a shooting star. On clear
night YOU have seen bright point of
light travel quickly across the sky as
though star had been shot from its
place. in the armament. 1t may, if it
was large one, have broken into
sparks as it disappeared, or have left
cloudy train along part of its path for
an instant, or perhaps it was SO faint
even that you could not be quite sure
that you saw anything. Some of you
have seen these shooting stars by hun
dreds in star-showers.
Until near the close of the last cen
fury poets dreamed, and other men
guessed, about these objects, but knew
nothing. Two German students, Brandes
and Benzenberg, found out and told us
that those bright flights were in the up
per parts of the atmosphere.
From the two ends of the city track
always appeared to be in the same part
of the heavens But when one went to IA
village many miles away track was
seen by the two persons TAT A and 81 in
different parts OF the sky. Hence they
were able to measure the height of the
shooting stars from the ground.
We now know that these luminous
paths are rarely less than forty miles or
more than ninety miles from the earth
We also know that any shooting star was
small body of unknown size, perhaps
not larger than pebble or grain OF
coarse sand even, undoubtedly solid,
which has been travelling around the sun
III its own independent orbit, like any
planet or comet. Its path came within
1000 miles of the carths center, and SO
the small body struck into the carths at
mospherc. lis velocity was so great
non-ball-that even in our rare upper
atmosphere an intense light and heat was
developed by the resistance, and the
body was scattered in powder or smoke.
These bodies, before they come into the
air, call mctcoroids 1t is only when
they have reached our atmosphere and
begin to burn that we see them. They
are then within ninety miles of the
ground. Brandcs, one of the two Ger
man students spoken Of, was riding in
an open post-wagon on the night of Dec
6, 1913, and saw and counted several
hundred of these shooting stars or me-
teors. At times they came as fast as six
or seven minute Those metcors
which Brandes saw that night we now
know were bits from Biela's comet,
In November, 1888, occurred the
famous star-showcr, which some of Won
saw. The facts of that shower gave to
two New Haven men, Profs. Twining and
Olmstead, the clew to the true theory of
shooting stars. From that date shooting
stars have belonged to astronomy The
November meteors were admitted a new
constituent OF the solar system Three
years later NJ Quctclct, of Brussels,
found that shooting stars are to be seen
in unusual numbers about the 10th of
August of each year. A few morrhs at
terward MIR. Herrick made independently
the same discovery; but he also told Us
of star showers in April and in January
What Brandes had seen in December
1898, led Mr.. Herrick, moreover, to expect
like shower in other Defenders. and he
asked that shooting stars be looked for on
the 9th and eth of December. 1888. This
shrewd guess was justified, for on The
Nf hny Il T.,
meteors were seen in America, in Europe
and IN Asia by persons thus induced to
look for them. These shooting stars
also, had once been parts of Bielas comet
though this fact was not dreamed Of 81
that time. In the course of time we
came TO know more about the meteoroids.
that in general they moved in long drifts
like comets, rather than round ones like
planets; that some of them were crouned
in long, thin streams, many hundred
millions of miles long, and that il was Nv
the carths plunging through these that
we have star-showcrs; that the snace
Travelled over by the earth has in il every.
where some of these small bodies. proba.
bly, the outlying members of hundreds of
metcoroid streams.
Also the periodic time and the path of
the stream of November meteoroitls were
found out. Then came the intcrestinr
discovery that in this stream and in that
oil the August mcteoroids lay the path Of
two comets. Then DR.. Weiss, of Vienna
showed that the metcors seen by Brandes
in 179S, and by Herrick in 1888, as we'll
as many mcteors seen near Dec.
of other years, and the Biela comets, all
belonged to each other. 1t is then prop
erly part of my story to show you the
behavior of one of the streams of the
meteoroids. Standing several hundreds
of miles away, see them enter the upper
atmosphere. They are entirely unseen
until they strike the air. They then
come down like drops of fiery rain few
miles, in parallel lines, burning up long
before they reach the ground. The air
is IN fact shield, protecting the men be-
low from furious bombardment. The
region OF the luminous tracks is many
umes above that of the highest noun
sains. Go farther away. Parallel lines
may show the paths of the meteoroids,
'n'ugh The bodies themselves are too |
e.n"n 70 De seen. They strike a little
way in'o the air, to some persons coming |
- Ao Aen'.h' to some coming obliquely,
% some coming through the upper air.
.n ny all upon one whole hemi
sphere need hardly remind Won that
sunlight and twilight and clouds of,on
come in to prevent the seeing Of the star
flights by persons below. Go still, far.har
away. From outside look in tow.ra
the sun upon the earth and meteoro;d
stream. The meteoroids, in fact, are not
to be seen. The stream is of unknowr
depth, perhaps millions Of miles deem
Its density increases generally toward
the center. We cross the densest part |
of the November stream in two or three |