The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-10-03
The August Meteors.
[scentinc AmerIcan.l

In 1tS accuStOmeu Journey 1urouSA SP"oO,
reached the outer edge of the supposed
meteoric ring which il annually passes
through at this period of the year. In
the vicinity of New York large num-
bers of meteors were seen during the
night of August 10th, some of them be-
ing of comparatively large size, very
bright, and leaving long trails. Doctor
Lewis Swift, in a recent letter to the
Rochester Express, gives the following
information concerning these remarkable
heavenly bodies:
Meteoric astronomy now takes rank as
O distinctive branch of astronomical
science. Not forty yeyrs have elapsed
since it was ascertained that star showers
are periodical. Even then, and for many |
years after, it was supposed there were |
but two, called the August and Novem-
ber showers Now, not less than one |
hundred have been detected, and others |
are constantly being added to the list.
The accounts of the showers that occur |
red in ancient times came down to us
clothed in such extravagant language
that, until the great star shower OF No
vember 13, 1888, astronomers were 10th
to believe them. Now they know not
only the cause, but are able to predict
their recurrence with almost as much
exactness as eclipses, and the popular
mind observes these displays with equa-
nimity and delight instead of fear and
alarm, or thinking the day OF Judgment
has come. Science has dlsarmed not
only them, but eclipses and comets as
well, of their terrors.
All know what shooting star looks
like, but no living man can tell us what
it really is, for not one has ever been
known to reach the earth. Those heavy,
stony, and still more weighty metallic
| masses, called meteorites, meteorlc
stones, etc., which occasionally fall to
the earth from the celestial regions, of
which the one that recently fell in Iowa
| was a remarkable example, belong to
another class of objects entirely, of 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 a dark, probably solid condition,
not much, if any, larger than peas, too
small to be seen by daylight, and at
night, being in the earth's shadow, are
| eclipsed and consequently invisible.
Only while being burned are they visl-
BILE to us, as then they shine by their own
light.
Each meteoroid moves in an orbit, re-
| volving around the sun with as much
regularity as the larger planets. In fact,
each is in every sense OF the word a
planet, obeying strictly the laws of grav-
itation and planetary motion. ALI space
: is filled with them; they are as numerous
as the sand. The earth and they in their
Journey around the sun encounter each
other; the earth, by its superior attrac-
ton, draws them toward it, but to reach
it they must pass through the atmos-
phere, which not one is able to do. Only
meteoric stones are able to reach the
earth, and they have their surfaces black
, ened and converted to scoria by the ter
rible heat engendered by the friction
with the atmosphere and by arrested mo-
ton.
Shooting stars move in all directions.
, and at velocities probably equal to the
earth's, nearly nineteen miles a second
/ One moving retrograde, therefore iron
/ east to west) would plunge into the at
, mosphere at relative velocity OF some
thirty-eight miles a second, and, if allow
ance be made for accelerated motion
2 caused by the earth's attraction, proba
bly, double that, or seventy-fve miles 6
r second The encounter is fearful, anC
: but for the atmosphere which acts as &
. cushion, the effect would be disastrous
? for not less than 800 ,OOO, 900 would rail-
3 upon the earth every day.
The source from whence these me
t teoroids come is comets, especially from
/ their tails. The tail of the great come
s of 1911 was $50 ,OOO, 900 miles in length
9 and 100000 in diameter. It is i'm
t probable in the highest degree that tn
J., comet could gather its tail to itself again
= It is left behind, forming part of a ring
t which in time may become continuous
: Another comet comes and it does tn
same, and during the ages which are pas
!, this process has been going on till tn
i interplanetary spaces are filled with no
s only meteoroids, but something still NOR
:, marvellous.
q In about three thousand years tina
= great comet will return again and repea
t the process, forming part of anothe
y ring, or adding to the first, depending OF
Y circumstances which need not be consid
g cred here. Whenever the earth, in it
b annual journey, passes through any rim.
4 made by some comet, no man know
t when, we get a star shower. The fou
e most notable ones in our time
n take place at the following dates
e namely, on the mornings of August
e and November IA, and the evenings o
b November "a and 27 The last two ar
r caused by the earth passing through tn
g track of meteoroids left behind by tn
f fragments of Bida's comet, which di
/ vided into two parts in 1845. In thi
s way meteoric rings are formed, of whicl
r the solar system is filed, but none ar
visible to us, except those the cart
It passes through. By some such process
h was the August ring formed, which tn
y earth passed diagonally through on tn
e evening of the 10th and morning of tn
l. 18th of the present month.
l. The first August shower mentioned i
}, history occurred on July 25, A. D. 81
) and has appeared with unfailing regular
d ity down to our time, except break c
l. eighty three years between 81 and 924
e and another and much longer one G
e three hundred and ten years, betweel
1t 933 and 1913, owing, probably, to break
II in the ring, or, which is more likely, t
j. failure to record them. The period G
o the above comet is about one hundre
/, and twenty three years, and it will there
}, fore make its next appearance about tn
it year 1885.
it The eccentricity of the August rim
), is very great, its perihelion distance be
n ing equal to that of the earth, and it
= aphelion distance far beyond the orb
r, Of Neptune, making the circumference
IS of the ring more than II ,OOO, ,OOO, 90