The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-11-06
AMONG THE BABY STARS.
Professor Harkness Tells All He Knows
About Meteoric showers.

Professor Harkness Tolls All He Knows
About Meteoric Showers.
when l was small boy" said Pro.
fessor William Hardness. of the Naval
Observatory, Il used to be much inter
ested in watching shooting stars and !
always wondered why it was that
though l could see them so often
never was able to see one start. Very
likely children, and, ms YOU say, per-
haps other people as well, wonder why it
is that shooting stars or meteors always
appear to start out in full motion and
suddenly fade away. without seeming
to get anywhere in particular. The
explanation is simple enough when one
really understands what meteors really
are. Star gazers through all time have
been interested in the phenomenon OF
meteoric showers, but it was not until
well in this century that Schiaparelli.
astronomer of Milan, gave an explana-
ton of them. In 1866 considerable
work was done here at the observatory
in working out the problem of meteors.
What are they? Why, they are
simply small bodies that the earth en-
counters in uncomfortable numbers in
its annual revolution around the sun.
They are very small indeed-much too
small ever to be seen by the most
powerful telescope. | doubt if they
would average in weight grain apiece.
while one as large and heavy as an
ordinary buckshot would make very
brilliant meteor indeed. They are
pieces. probably, of some heavenly
body that was broken up at some time
or other and they have kept on moving
around the sun, each in its own orbit.
ever since. Then there are great
groups of them moving around in the
same orbit, and when the earth in its
course around the sun passes through
the path of one of these groups we have
what we call meteoric shower. That
is the explanation of the August shower.
the most brilliant regular shower of the
year. About the 9th or 10th of August
the earth passes through the orbit that
is travelled by innumerable metoroids.
They are all around the orbit at the
same time, and thus it is that we can
be certain of running into them every
summer.
In the case of the November meteorS,
however, it is quite different. They
move in one bunch around the sun.
with the same orbit and the same
period little over thirty-three years.
Thus we only have a remarkable
November shower when the position of
the earth comedies with the position of
this group of meteoroids.
Still as you have noticed, of course,
shooting stars can he seen almost every
,rkt otar lnc1
is explained by the fact that there are
countless millions of these small bodies
scattered all through the region of the
sidereal system. Some move together
in punches or groups. as l have said,
while others are isolated examples, but
each is rushing around the sun in a
well-detined orbit. Although the total
mass of these bodies is very small, vet
their number is beyond all estimation.
According to Professor Newton's esti.
mates 1000, 600 stars are run into by
the earth every twenty-four hours.
This would make two or three thousand
million meteOrOids met with in the
course of year. The earth, of course,
would only encounter very small
fraction of those even in the solar
system. 1t has been estimated that
while there is but single meteor to
several million cubic kilometers of
space in the heavens, still the total
number is immensely great, because a
globe including the orbit of Neptune
would contain millions of millions Of
millions of millions of cubic kilometers.
why is it that we can only see them
as we doP For the simple reason that
a meteroid is so small that it can not
be seen. it can not shine in its own
light. for it has none. and it is too in
significant even to shine by reflected
light.
so it has to wait until it strikes ou1
atmosphere, where. moving at the
tremendous rate it does, even in the
raritied air way up there. it is soon on
fire and completely destroyed by the
intense heat that the friction causes,
long before it reaches the earth. Only
very rarely or in the case of exception
ally large and hard meteors or bolides
is ever a trace of them found upon the
surface of the earth. Occasionally one
hears of a fine powder being scattered
over the snow on lofty mountain peaks
after very heavy star shower, and the
theory is held that this is the star dust
of ash. but this theory is not generally
sustained, rs all experiments and efforts
to catch star dust have proved signal
failures.
Shooting stars are merely insight
hcant particles of matter in state of
combustion, good way off, though
still within the limits of our atmos-
phere, and so small that while they
are consuming they offer a mere point