New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-11-27
FRAGMENT OF AMANA METEoRIC STONE

Livy tells OF a shower OF stones which fell on the
Albsn Mount, and Piny describes great stone which
fell from heaven near Aegospotamus. In the early
Buddhist writings In China there Is story that
Buddha caused a stone TO fall from heaven over
which a pagoda was erected A Mahometan traveller
tells Of which fell In the environs OF city,
Birh, In Africa. which be visited in 1925. The
stone. he declared, weighed 100 pounds. Other
meteoric stones reported have fallen at
various places, but It until the present
century that scientists believed the reports. Pre-
viously 1t had been held that such stories
myths. and rested on the statements OF crcdulOus
peasants.
In 1903, however, extraordinary shower Of
meteorites fell at La lyle In France. The stones
fell during the daytime, and 50 many people testified
TO the fact that the Paris Academy sent a special
committee to Investigate IT, !. great many meteoric
stones were picked up and the committee obtained
sufficient proof TO convince them that the did
really fall from the sky The results OF this nvest
CATION completely revolutionized the theories with
regard TO shooting stsrs meteors etc.
During the present century great deal Of study
has been devoted TO them and many theories have
been proposed. OF them soon TO be exploded
II was not until something OF tho true nature Of
comets began TO be understood and the shooting
stars began TO DO connected with them that an even
fairly satsfs Glory explanation Of the latter could be
made Even now there is much mystery connected
with them. q fact which is not to be wondered at
when considers the difficulty IN the way Of
getting accurate observations.
The history Of = shooting star. meteor. meteorite
serOlite (air stone. or uranolith heaven stone
prefers TO call It, begins according 10 the latest
theories with the history II some comet Just what
u comet is and where 1t comes from Is hard 10 say
Ito origin is not known But 1t Is known that II is
an ect which comes into the solar system from
space under attraction OF the sum- which around
The and then goes of into space, perhaps never
Tb~, hath
turn depends the orbit In which It moves II the
orbit is eNpse II will surely come back II II Is
pafatoa or hyperbola II will not return. How is
It now that comets differ so In their orbitsl Why
should some return and some not returnl
There is more In the answer to this question than
calling attention to the different directions in which
they moving through space before they
under the influence OF the SUMS attractive power.
There are other bodies IN our system besides the
sun. and these have been taken into account When
comet comes into our system 1t Is likely TO pass
near Of the larger planets. There Is then
another attracting force. If the motion OF the comet
Is accelerated thereby the comets orbit becomes
surely hyperbolic and II goes off never to return.
tut II the comets motion Is retarded. Its orbit
comes ellpucal and II will surely return. Each
time q comet meets IA planet under such conditions
It's orbit becomes smaller and the time OF It's
shorter. Comets then. which would ordinarily
stay In the system kept here by the attractive
power OF one OF tho planets. This Is called the
capture" theory.
Each OF the larger planets, Jupiter. Saturn Uranus
and Neptune have family" Of comets which they
have attracted anu whose orbits lie near their own.
All the shortperiod comets those having periods OF
from three TO eight years. belong to Jupers family.
There sixteen OF them including Blea's. saturn
is credited with two having periods about thirty
three years; Uranus has three OF longer period
Neptune has six. the periods Of which about
seventy five years. The earth and the other lesser
planets have no captured comets 10 their credit
but ter attraction has changed the orbits OF several
The periodic comets. then moving about the sun
Hike the planets except that their orbits are eptcal
instead Of circular nearly
In bulk comet is the largest OF celestial objects
but Its density is not greet. This Is shown by the
fact that no comet has been known 10 alter the
movement Of any OF the planets even In the slightest
degree. although It's own has been greatly
changed by them. Tie comet exercises a certain
attractive force but its mass is small that the
effect upon the earth and other planets Is not felt
Some has said that comet properly packed