The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-11-24
NOVEMBER MErEoRs.
The Farth's Plunge Through the Meteor
Ming


Ring.
The Providence Journal in recent issu'
saws: For the last three days the earth hai
been plunging through a portion of space
known as the November meteor ring, be
cause it lntersects her orbit on the 18th o
this month. Its vast width may be inferred
from the fact that the earth is three days in
making the passage through the meteor
zone, and its existence may be proved
bv small number of shooting stars
radiating from the constellation Leo,
that observers, especlally III
the small hours of the morning, have seen
when the sky was clear. though the star
gazing has been greatly interiered with by
the intervention of unwelcome clouds. The
November meteors are interesting men,
hers of the solar family, aud ignorant
ms. we are concerning bodies, celestial.
we probably know something OF their
origin and development, The result
of careful investigation seems to prove
that the November meteorS consist of q
swarm of particles following the comet of
1866 in its orbit. One of our giant planets,
Uranus, actually captured this comet when,
in the year l26, it CHANGED to approach too
near its all-powerful neighbor, The planet
bent the comet out OF its course as easily as
slight wire is bent by the hand, and never
since has it been able to cape from its
lailer. 1t is no unusual thing
for a comet to break in pieces,
and for trail to lag behind the neuclus,
the whole cosmical mass becoming more
and more elongated until it is either par
TALLY or entirely resolved into ring of
meteors. In the August meteors, associa
ted with the comet of 1862, the process is
completed and the whole path of the
comet is strewn with portions of its mass.
The small, dark meteoric bodies pene-
trating the earth's atmosphere become
luminous, and give each year more
or less brilliant but unfailing display of
falling stars about the 10th of August
In the November meteors the process Of
disintegration has not advanced so far, the
meteor zone is comparatively young, the
cream not having yet scattered over tenth
of the orbit. Consequently we do not have
a star-shower every year, for the meteors are
not uniformly distributed throughout the or.
bit, but mostly concentrated in an immense
group in one part of it. The orbit of the
November meteors is gigantic hoop or ell
hpse, with its perihelion lying on the earth's
orbit and its aphelion just beyond the orbit
of Uranus. In this orbit the meteors move in
their cratic fashion around the sun, the
revolution averaging about thirty-three and
a quarter years. This period of time must
therefore intervene between the grand me-
teoriC showers that occur when the earth
intersects the vast meteoric swarm. The
particles that strike our atmosphere, be-
coming ignited by the conclusion, then de-
scend in a shower of fire and form one Of
the most glorious displays of celestial won
ders that are witnessed by mortal eyes. As
Al L. In nj
for three successive years at the same
place, its extent cannot be less than nearly
eighteen hundred million miles 1t 1899 we
may look for return of this superb phe-
nomena, when meteors will fall from the
skies like golden snowfakes, and the gilt
tering stars will seem to be involved in
general contlagration. In 1900 and 1901 the
fiery shower will be renewed, though on q
scale less grand, and then, unless some
thing unforeseen occurs, comparative quiet
will reign in the November star-lit sky,
until the year 1882 ushers in the return
of the meteoric swarm to cross the
earth's track, and repeat the grand
display. For eighteen years to come
we may not see the heavens on fire
under the dark dominion of the night. But
as nothing is more uncertain than any
thing connected with cometic and meteOriC
movements, 1t is well to scan the skies with
every return of the 18th of November.
When least expected the heavens may take
on some new aspect and a hurrying swarm
ofmeteors fill that portion ofthe ring into
which the earth then plunges with head
long force remorselessly imprisoning in her
atmosphere the tiny atoms of the swarm
ing mass, and treating observers who are on
the watch to shower of golden rain Many
strange things may happen on the celestial
concave before the year 1899.