The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-10-03
SHOOTING STARS.
What Lewis Swift Says About Ther

What Lewis Swift Says About Them.
The science of metoric astronomy is,
in whatever light it may be viewed, one
| OF the darkest subjects with which as
tronomy has to deal. Thanks to the in
defatigable energies of modern astrono-
mers, the dark clouds with which it has
So long been enshrouded are breaking
away, letting in an occasional ray of
light to illumine the pathway 10 a com
plete solution.
Metcoric astronomy now takes rank
as distinctive branch OF astronomical
science. Not forty years have elapsed
since it was ascertained that star show
ers are periodical. Even then, and for
many years after, it was supposed there
were but two, called August and No
vember showers. Now, not less than
100 have been detected, and others are
constantly being added TO the list. The
accounts of the showers that occurred in
ancient times, came down to us clothed
In such eXtravagant language that, until
the great star shower of November Is,
1853, astronomers were 10th to believe
them. Now they know not only the
cause, but are able to predict their re-
currence with almost as much eXactness
as eclipses, and the popular mind OBJ
serves these displays with equanimity
and delight instead of fear and alarm, or
thinking the day of judgment has come,
Science has disarmed not only them, but
ecipses and comets as well, OF their ter
rors.
All know what a shooting star looks
like, but no living man can tell us what
ii really is, for not one has ever been
known to reach the earth Those heavy.
stony and still more weighty metallic
masses, called meteorites, metcoric stones,
&c, which occasionally fall to the earth
from the celestial regions, of which the
one that recently fell in Iowa was ii re-
markable example, belong to another
class of objects entirely, the origin of
which man knows nothing.
a shooting star is only visible while
undergoing the process of combustion,
which lasts from one To three seconds
seldom longer. Previous to this they
exist In II dark, probably solid condition,
not much if any larger than peas, too
small to he seen by daylight, and in the
night, being in the earth'sShadow, are
eclipsed, and consequently in visible
Only while being burned are they
visible TO us, rs then they shine by their
own light.
Each meteoroi moves in an orbit, re-
Yolying round the sun with as much reg
ularity as the larger planets. In fact,
ct, obeying strictly the laws of gravita-
tIon aud planetary motion. Ali space
IS illied with them; they are as numer-
Gus us the sand. The earth and they in
their journey round the sun, encounter
| each other; the earth by its superior at
traction draws them toward il, but to
reach 1t they must pass through the at
moSpheTe, which not one is able to do
Only metoric stones are able to reach
the earth and they have their surfaces
blackened, and converted to scoria by the
terrible heat engendered by the friction
with the atmosphere and by accelerated
motion.
Shooting stars move i'm all directions.
and ut velOcities probably equal to the
earth's-nearly nineteen miles a second
One moving retrograde, therefore, least
to wesD would plunge into the atmos-
phere alta relative velocity of some thirty
eight miles a second, and, if allowance
be made for accelerated motion, caused
| by the earth's attraction, probably
double that, or seventy-five miles IA see
ond. The encounter is fearful, and but
for the atmosphere, which acts as a
cushion, the effect would be disastrous,
for not less than 100000, 600 would rain
upon the earth every day.
The source from whence these meteo-
| AUANS SptHC II COMETS, especially from
their tails. The tail of the great comet
of 1911 was $50, 100000 miles in length
and 100000 in diameter 1t is i'm.
probable in the highest degree that the
comet could gather its tail to Itself again.
IL is left behind, forming part of a ring,
which IN time may become continuous
| Another comet comes and it does the
same, and during the ages WHICH are
passed this process has been going on
Till the interplanetary spaces are filled
With not only meteoroids, but something
still more marvellous, meteoric rings.
In about 10000 years that great comet
VIII return again and repeat the process,
forming part of another ring, or, adding
to the first, depending on circumstances,
which need not be considered here.
Whenever the earth, in its annual Jour
ney, passes through any ring made by
some comet, no man knows when, we
/ get star shower.