Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1889-01-10
WANDERERS oE nae skY.
cufious Facts Aboat strange iiodiss Thai
Fly Through SPACE.

Fly Through SPACE.
The members Of the meteorological
section OF the Brooklyn Institute lis
tened 70 Prof. II. Hensoldt, who told
them about meteors and who illus
trated his subject with double hand.
ful OF shooting stars, with sections OF
the same. and with parings from me-
teorites thA' we're exhibited under the
microscope. Among the sections was
one from the three hundred pound
specimen found in Fayette County.
Tex, on the land OF a Bohemian farm,
er, who thought that IL marked the
place where the fugitive General Santa
Anna buried his treasure. Only four
hundred and thirty falls Of meteors are
recorded, though on some Of these oc-
casions hundreds, perhaps thousands,
OF pieces fell The earth gains in
weight thousands Of tons every year
through this meteoric accretion, but
most Of the meteors plunge into the
sea and are lost. II Is indeed possible,
said Prof. Hensoldt, that the earth IL
self Is merely hh aggregation Of
meteors, gathered upon nucleus
Of cosmir dust and amassea in
countless ages rs the planet swept
around the sun and moved forward
with that luminary through cold and
pathless oceans OF space toward some
goal that we can not know. Certain
II Is that the center OF the earth Is
formed Of heavier materials than the
crust, the specific gravity OF minerals
and rocks that we are acquainted with
being insufficient to account for the
weight Of the whole earth, and that
this core or bulk is metallic is in
dicated In the fact that eruptive rocks
thrown up contain metali the basnlt Of
Dlsko, of the coast OF Greenland,
Astounding In masses OF pure iron. The
oldest known meteor is one that was
found on a prehistoric altar erected by
Indians in the Little Miami valley.
The weight and sise Of Tho tiidsses
range from that OF sand grain to
blocks Of metal 800 pounds in weight.
One that fell in Africa tore up the soil
for a mile. Stone is seldom found in
meteorites, and out OF all that have
been discovered not more than twenty
contain no iron. The fall through an in
creasingly dense atmosphere, that may
extend anywhere from four TO four hun.
dred miles around the earth, develops
a friction that heats the surface Of the
meteor red hot, but this heat is devel-
oped so quickly that the interior is not
Affected. Some that we're broken open
directly after slighting were too hot to
touch externally, while at the center
they were ice cold with the external
night and chill of space. In one speci-
men found in Germany there are in
closures Of quartz containing cells
partly filled with liquified carbonic acid,
With bubbles In them that ueHselessly
dart from side 70 side Under the indu-
ente Of Varying temperature. Meteors
have been ascribed to volcanic etupz
tions on the moon by theorists who
held that they were tossed out OF vol
canoes, but space is too rich in them
to make this probable, and IL is more
likely that they are fragments OF b
broken planet, or were elected in vio-
lent ruptures that hurled them beyond
the reach Of gravitation. An Austrian
scientist gained temporary fame by
pretending to discover fossil remains
in a meteorite, but, though his discov-
efies came TO nothing, II is barely pos
sible that such remains, nay, that living
bacteria, may yet by found in them.
Indeed. it is not wholly impossible
that the earth may have received its
FIRST seed of life from meteor.-N. Y.
Times.