The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-09-18
MISSILES FROM THE HEAVENS.
Billions Of Them Fall, hut CO9 paratisel,
ROw Reach the Earth.

0tliiOna Ut Them Fau, but Comparatively
Fs~ Reach the Esrth.
at is a mistake to suppose that mete-
orifes burst in the proper sense of the
word" said q scientist ~ = writer, Bat
it,often happens that.taey ass 'hroken 70
pieces on striking the atmosphere Of the
earth. This may seem surprising, but
let me call your attention to an analogy.
ktrike the surface of water with your
fist. and. though . fluid the resistance II
| opposes to the blow seems almost as
strong as If it were solid. Now. the me-
teorite is moving at a tremendous rate Of
speed. Il small, it is set on fire in an in
slant by the friction of the air, and after
glowing for q moinen brightly is con-
sumed.
'.On any night in summer you will
see shooting stars now and then. They
are meteorites. which on coming into
contact with the earth's atmosphere are
set atire. This is not surprising, mas
much as they approach the planet on
wh;cl. we live at Il speed which often at
tains Al miles IA second. By causing the
destruction Of mcteorites the atmosphere
serves as a protection for people on the
RlOUt. NUO Noulu JULIET Use Uc pclltu
by snch missiles to a dangerous extent
II is estimated that not less than 10000.
900 of them. big enough to be visible &c
the naked eye. strike the earth every 81
hours.
by contact with this planet the me
~teorites are raised TO a temperature which
reaches from 3,0O0, 600 to 4.OOO. 900 de-
grees-high enough to consume the hard
est known substance almost instantly.
Thus only those of large size reach the
earth before being entirely burned up.
The greatest number of such bodies can
be seen just before daybreak. because by
that time we are on the front side Of the
globe as it moves through space. The
elevation 1T which most Of them are Wis
ible has been found to be between IS and
~ miles, very few being seen at a greater
height than 100 miles.
1T is believed by most astronomers
that some very large meteors have en-
tered our atmosphere and have passed
out into space again, their great mo-
mentum being sufficient to take them
away from the earth's attraction. What
these flying bodies are is a question that
uoS DCSA ululu uEputCu, Oul A. u COu-
sidered most likely that they are the
debris of broken up comets. In one re-
cent instance the correctness of this the
DRY has found striking proof. That was
the case of the comet of Biela. 1t wac
discovered i'll 1896 and was again OBJ
served in 1889, ls45 and 1852. In ls45 it
had split into two parts. and in 1872 it
failed to appear when and where /
should have done. Evidently it had been
smashed up, and prediction was made
that there would be a great meteoric
shower composed of the remains Of the
lost comet. This prediction was fulfilled
Certain groups of meteors move In
elliptieal orbits around the sun. Occa-
s~ionally the earth passes through their
clusters, producing what are known as
meteoric showers. Such showers occur
annually from the 9th to the 18th of Al
gust, and there is a similar display in
November ono every 33 years. The
stream of the August meteors is esti
mated to be from 5000. 900 to 10, OO0, 900
miles thick. The earth, though travel
ing with rL- velocity Of ZOO ,O00 miles a
day, is immersed in it for several days.
u IA - lIFttolatts ~ Ia III 40
sometimes accompanied by.a great dis
play of light, occasionally illuminating
an area Of many thousand square miles
When such al event occursa at night, and
with loud ~detonations. 50 great in some
instances as to shake houses and fright
en- men and animals, the explosions are
caused by the breaking up Of The me
teor. Ordinarily yon will find that such
meteoric bodies are coated on the out
side with a black substance, which is
the effect merely of fusion Of the super
fetal material by great heat. A piece Of
Biela's comet vas actually picked up in
Mexico in 1872 at the time of the shower
OF its remains. Naturally it is consid.
cred interesting.
"Such great interest is taken in mete.
orites that all Of those collected have
been carefully c~atalogued. They are
mostly composed Of iron, with usually
percentage of nickel and cobalt and
sometimes copper and tin. II is custom
airy to saw them into slices, which is q
laborious process, for sale n for ex
change among museums. Sometimes
the slices are prettily polished, or the Gu
surfaces are etched with acid 80 as to ex
pose the crystalline structure. Thi
structure is in no W such bodies exact
" the same, and the differences Ar
thought well worth studying. Attempt
have been made to counterfeit meteor
ties because they are 80 valuable, bu
without success."-Washington Star.