The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-03-08
Shooting Stars.

Tbe lecturer reminded his hearers that,
be1des the stars We see on a clear night
and besides those the telescope makes
known, there are countless bodies NOV
ing through space which even the most
powerful telescope fails to reveal till
they come either in the orbit of the earth
or Of its atmosphere. These are what
are called meteorites and shooting stars,
and it is important to distinguish clearly
between the two. They are alike lumin-
in passing through the atmosphere,
though but few people have ever seen
meteorite falling. The number of shoot.
ing stars is infinitely greater than is
usually supposed, for observers with
telescopes often see them fash across the
field in dimensions too small to be seen
with the naked eye. We know that
shooting stars undergo combustion In
passing through our atmosphere. What
becomes of the debris? The snow of the
Alps, far away from furnaces, contains
globules of iron, and dust that as quietly
accumulated in exposed places contains
them also. tits supposed they represent
some of the debris. Though we may
grumble at our atmosphere in bad
weather, we must recollect il, at least,
does this-it burns up these bodies that
are pelting down upon us at rate one
hundred times greater than the missiles
of an eighty-one ton gun, and, but for
this burning up, they would be at any
rate awkward for us. In looking at the
knowledge accumulated with regard to
shooting stars, the first point to notice,
Professor Ball says, is that certain great
showers are periodical, and always come
from the same parts of the heavens.
According to the constellation from
which they appear to come, they are
called Lyriads, Perseids, Orionids, Leon
ids, etc. The inference from these recur-
ring periods is that the orbit of the earth
then cuts the orbit in which a mass of
these is moving. With this fact of
recurrence it must be noticed that certain
comets are periodical, and from
comparison of their supposed orbits
with those of groups of these
bodies, a connection between them
| is inferred, whatever may be
the origin of the comets, which
is not yet known. Meteorites, on the
contrary, are never known to come from
the direction of a comet path. If a
meteorite is carefully eNmined, it is
seen to be fragment of some rock, and
that of one closely analogous to our
earth's volcanic rocks. If we consider
| in turn the volcanic sources from which
they could have come, we see the sun
would have force enough to drive OF
/ fragments but it is hardly likely that
there are solid rocks there TO drive off
| Jules Verne is right, Professor Ball saws
i'll calculating that a body driven m
/ from the earth with force equal to six
miles q second would not return. Fron.
/ Ceres three miles a second would be sne
fcient. Examining all the planets IL
turn, it seems improbable that fb9l
meteorites originate from any of them
/ 1t seems much more likely that tbas
were in former times of greater: yaleap;s.
activity driven up from the eafEh its1is
and they again, after lapse of S;eat
| the earth in its orbit. The thedE SI,s4
| they come in from unlimited spdce :
! Professor Bell thinks, highly improbable
= -TProiessor Bells Lecture before H.
Iondsn Institution