The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-07

| sure results in large increase IN neat,
! The temperature of space being 213 degrees
| G. below zero, the lire ball, of more than
| glacial temperature before reaching our
| atmosphere, in a few seconds attains q
heat of 8, $40 degrees c., a higher temper
ature than can be produced by the intens-
| est Of our household fires. This high
| temperature would be attained even If the
| fire ball should cross only the more rarified
| strata of the aerial heights, where the pres
sure is not miliionth part of the entire
| weight of the atmosphere.
The result of all this friction and COM
| bustion IS that no shooting star can reach
| the earth it is inevitably dissipated before
| penetrating the lower strata of the atmos-
| phere. In the first place they do not de-
| scend directly toward US. The earth al
ways cnts group Of shooting stars more
| or less obliquely as 1t passes through them.
! The corpuscies often seem to glide over the
| convex exterior of the atmosphere. al
| though it is rare and easy to traverse. and
| appear after having followed the line of q
tangent rather than OF secant. Those
| which arrive more directly in front pene-
trate farther and remain, but are dissi-
pated, their speed entirely expended be-
| fore they can overcome the resistance of
the air and reach the earth. They are
found in the form of ferrugInous powder
on the surface of the ground.
1t is now known that meteors play q
were formerly disposed to believe. Not a
single night, a single hour or moment
passes without the fall of a shooting star.
The terrestrial globe sails through regions
full OF cOrpuscles circulating in every direc-
ton, some following ellIptical courses of
varied inclination, others moving in the
exact plane of the elliptic. By counting
the number of shooting stars seen above q
given horizon during the different nights
of the year, by calculating the number of
similar horizons embracing the entire sur
face OF the globe, and by taking into con-
sideration the directions in which stars
fall, their monthly variations, ETC., an
eminent American geometrician, Mr..
Simon Newcomb, has demonstrated that
not less than one hundred and forty-six
billion (146, 600, OO0,OOW fall to the earth
every year!
Very remarkable showers of falling stars
appeared on November q, 1872, and Novem-
Der q. 1885. The showers on the nights of
the 18th and 18th of November, 1888, were
still more marvellous. The stars were SO
numerous and appeared in so many parts
OF the heavens, that in trying to count
them one could scarcely hope to obtain
even an approximation to their number.
Olmstead, observing them at Boston, COM
pared them at their maximum to half the
number of flakes seen in the air during an
ordinary snow storm. When the phe-
nomenon had considerably abated, he
counted $50 shooting stars in fifteen min
utes, although he confined his observations
to zone consisting of less than a tenth
part of the visible horizon, and estimated
the total number for the whole visible
hemisphere as $3.50 or 1850 stars every
hour. This shower lasted seven hours
hence the number of stars visible at Boston
exceeded 10000
Ii the shooting star weighs but a few
| grammes or less, it is volatilized and dissi-
| pated into the air; if it is a heavier body,
| it resists this action, but its exterior sur
face melts and becomes covered with a
varniSh-like coating. Suppose fire-balI
| with radius of 1893 inches and density
equal 3.5, to enter the atmosphere with q
| velocity of 90, 600 meters a second, it is
| found suddenly to develop a quantity of
| heat sufficient to raise 4, 397, 600 liters of
| water one degree and to lose 5000 meters
| of velocity on reaching an altitude of
| Is, 900 meters, SO that it reaches the earth 8
| surface with the feeble velocity of five
| meters q second, which explains the slight
| depth to which meteors sink into the
| ground when they encounter the earth.
| 1t is very important to distinguish between
the siderial velocity of fire balls at the
time of arrival in the upper atmosphere
! and that of their fall after explosion.
| Astronomers formerly believed that
| shooting stars circulated about the sun
| in eIliptical orbits nearly circular, with q
| velocity similar to that of the earth. In
| 1866 Professor Schiaparelli, of Milan, i'm
| pressed by their speed, which suggests a
| parabolical orbit, suspected that. like
| comets, they might have an origin entire
| ly independent OF our system, and pro-
| posed the following theory:
| Suppose q mass, either nebulous or
| formed of corpuscles of any kind, situ-
| ated at the limit of the suns sphere of
action, and endowed with relatively
feeble movement, beginning to feel the
| solar attraction; having large volume it's
| points are situated at very different dis
stances from the sun, consequently when
| the mass begins to fall towards the
| sun its equally distant points would
| in time acquire unequal yelocitieS.
| Calculation shows that, despite these
differences, the perihelion distances OF
| the different corpuscles would be but
| slightly modified, and the orbits would be
! so nearly alike that the molecules would
| follow one another, forming a species of
| chain, or current, which would consume a
| very long time in passing round the sun.
| A mass of a diameter equal to that of the
| sun would require several centuries to
| make the revolution. This chain repre-
sents physically and visibly the orbit of
| the meteoric corpuscles, just as jet of
| water represents the parabolic trajectory
| of each molecule viewed as an isolated
| projectile.
If, in it's revolution, the earth passes
| through this procession of corpuscies, q
| certain number of them will encounter it,
| their velocity combining with that of the
| terrestrial globe. Ii the chain is very
| long the earth will thus cross it each year
| at the same point OF space, but will each
| year encounter different set of corpuscles.
| 1t Is easy then TO calculate the position of
this current of corpuscular bodies.
Professor Schiaparelli has made calcula-
| tions for the two currents of August and
November, and. by happy circumstance.
found that two very well known comets
have orbits coincidlng precisely with these
great comet of 1862, which passed its
periheion August % of the same year,
and whose revolution consumes 12l years,
Its orbit>coincides with that of the meteors
| of August To- The second is that which
appeared in 1866, whose period is thirty
three years, and whose orbit comedies
with that OF the November meteors. This
| discovery shed great light upon the
nature OF shooting stars and their corre-
| spondence with the orbits of comets, and
also suggested the conclusion that comets,
| like shooting stars, must be accumula-
| lions of matter derived from nebulous
! masses foreign To our planetary system.
10 this identity of shooting stars and
| comets might be opposed the spectral an
aiys!s OF comets which shows them TO be
formed, at least in part, OF gaseous ma
te-Iai, while shooting stars must be solid {,
but the spectroscope has also solved THIS
| dlthcuity. In truth, In addition 10 the
| fact that these solid materials may be en-
| Veloped by gaseous and nebuious atmos-
| phere to which the cometary spectrum
may be attributed, spectral analysts proves
| that their mass contains great quantity
OF colnetary gases IN its pores, gases " hIch