Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-04-04

age velocity accorded them being about
twenty-six miles per second. or nearly
half as fast again as the earth travels
around the sun. Some meteors, how
ever, have been observed to possess q
velocity of over one hundred miles per
second. or three hundred and sixty
thousand miles per hour! Perhaps
the reader will ask: ''Why are these
bodies burned up?" The answer ia
this: Suppose two bodies moving in
space with such great velocity
and in Independent orbits encounter;
what will be the result? A sudden
check of their motion converts That
motion into heat This rule applies in
all ca es. In the case of the earth and
the meteors the action is identical
The mean rate of motion of the earth
in her orbit is about nineteen miles
per second. Moving along at this rate
she encounters cloud of meteors
whose motion is further increased by
the attraction of the greater body.
The cloud of meteors encounters re.
sistence in the earth's atmosphere
and the friction produced converts the
motion into heat so great that the
meteor1c bodies are rapidly dissipated.
OF course. some heat is generated in
the earth's atmosphere, as its share Of
the encounter, but the relative amount
to the bulk, or quantity, is trifling. 1t
is stated that the amount of heat ordi-
narily developed by the above de-
scribed encounter is enough to vapor-
ize any known substance almost in
stantly. The fact that the greater
number of meteors are consumed and
disappear before they reach the earth
is sufficient evidence that their mass
is small. Such of these mete.
ORIG visitors as have been
discovered on the surface Of the earth
and afterward analysed show. in gem
eral, only terrestrial elements. Dis
tinction is made between accidental
meteors and "meteoric showers"
As relates to the first named, their
visibility is common at all times, and
might be called accidental because
they usually appear in widely different
quarters of the sky and possess widely
different paths "Meteoric shower"
make their appearance in certain por-
tions of the sky-that is they appear
to radiate always from some particular
constellation. These showers always
take place on certain nights of August
and November of every year. 1t is be-
lieved, from the fact that they occur
annually, and that the meteors causing
them revolve in orbits at points
reached by her in August and Novem-
Der. Further, that these rings of
meteors are of varying thickness at
different points. giving us showers of
varying splendor. The greatest dis
play by the November meteOrs takes
place every thirty-three years. The
orbits of the August and November
meteors have been calculated by Lev
erier and others. who discovered the
wonderful relationship between me-
teors and comets.
The polariscope shows us that
comets appear to shine by reflected
sunlight. Schlaparelli, of Milan, es.
tablished the identity of the August
meteor shower and comet Ill. of 1862.
This astronomers theory of the won
derful relationship existing between
comets. meteors and nebula is worthy
of careful consideration. 1t is about
as follows: Clouds of meteoric parti-
cles exist and move about through
space. Their motions may at some
time bring them within the at
traction OF the sun, and the influence
of our powerful iuminary transforms
them into comets. and as the paths OF
these clouds may assume any direction,
they may or may not become visible
to us because of the direction in which
they approach the sun as related to
our line of vision. If the path as
sumed by the comet after leaving the
sun is elliptical the visitor will become
a member of our system. Further
possibilities are numerous The
cometary wanderer consists of col
lection of individual moving particles
or meteors. The following portion of
the comet. or tail. may, in the course
of time. lag far behind. and what to
us was once part of a comet may event.
ually become ring of meteric parti-
cles. If any portion of the orbit thus
formed should lie near enough to the
orbit of the earth we can expect, on
reaching that particular point, in our
journey round the sun. to witness the
appearance of a fall or shower of me-
teOrs, and the magnitude of the dis
play would depend on the thickness of
the meteoric ring at that place Lever
Ter states that q cosmical cloud entered
our system in January in the year 126,
and by passing too near the planet
Uranus in its path became transformed
into an elliptical orbit around the sun.
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