The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-24
LUMINOUS CLOUDS.
Phenomena That Should Be Visibl,
Near the End of May.

From the Memphis Scimltar
Among the most mysterious phenomena
in the heavens are the luminous night
clouds" which were first noticed in Ger
many in 1885, and which should be visible
near the end of the present month. Their
annual period of visibility at Berlin
has been from May.23 to Aug. II. After
that they can be seen. If at all. ONLY
IN the southern hemisphere. On at least
one occasion they have been noticed in
South America in December. Some sin
gular change evidently affects them, and
they are gradually disappearing. For
four years after their discovery they
were visible in both the evening and the
morning sky, but since 1889 they have
been seen at Berlin only between mid
night and dawn. They were intensely
bright at times in 1885 and 1886, but their
splendor had faded, and it is probable
Uhat put few more opportunities TO OBJ
serve them will be Afforded, says an ex-
change. For some reason they have been
hardly noticed outside of Germany, Hol-
land and Russia. l do not recall any OBJ
servation Of them in this country.
Their appearance is that of transparent
feeces and STATED bands floating at an
enormous hight above the earth and
shining generally with a silvery light,
slightly tinted at times with blue or
yellowish red. They appear long after
sunset and long before sunrise In the
evening the shadowe of the earth gradually
hides them, beginning at the top, while
In the morning their visibility commences
at their highest point and slowly ap-
proaches the horizon
The elevation of these clouds is one of
the most surprising facts known about
them. They are, as careful meas ure-
ments have shown, not less than fifty
miles above the earth, ten miles higher
than the upper limit of the atmosphere as
II was formerly given in some school
books. But we now know that the at
mosphere is still dense enough to produce
enects perceptible to US at far greater
nights through fiction at an elevation as
great as 100 miles at least.
Observation during the eclipse of the
moon have shown that the earth's atmos-
phere at a hight of nearly 200 miles is
capable of screening off an appreciate
portion Of the SUMS heat from the moon
1t is evident, then, that there may yet be
enough air at the hight of fifty miles to
retard the fall of such excessively minute
and uncomfortable particles as the lumi-
nous night clouds are composed Of
The tenuity of these clouds is sufficiently
Indicated by the fact that, when shining
with their greatest brllliancy, they do
not obscure the stars seen through them.
In this respect they resemble the tails of
comets, which are about the most COM
plete subJiized and uncompacted of all
the material phenomena known to us.
Yet the fact of their gradual disappear
ance attests that these clouds are either
settling down toward the surface of the
earth and mingling with the grosser dust
and impurities that render turpid the
lower strata of the atmosphere in which
we live, or else are escaping in ONE man
ner from the vicinity of the planet. If
their hight were as great as 10000 miles
instead of fifty miles, then it would be
shown that they might escape through
the effects of centrifugal force.
Upon the whole, it is probable that the
particles composing these mysterious
clouds are being dissipated through the
air, and are slowly settling earthward.
That being the case, it is not altogether
impossible that some of them may vet
pass through our lungs, or may already
have done so. In this view of the case the
questions of what are the clouds composed,
and whence have they originated, assume
a peculiar interest. Are. they of terres-
trial O. celest ial origin Can they exer-
else a deleteriOus effect upon the inhab-
itants ofthe-earth9 In regard to the latter
question IL may be said that the quantity
of matter contained in these clouds must
be so slight in comparison with the whole
volume of the atmosphere that the amount
of impurity it could introduce into the air
we breathe would be infnitesimal, and
consequently incapable of harm.
AS to the origin of the clouds, it has
been supposed by some that like the dust
which caused the crimson sunset of 1888
and 1884, they may have been a product
of the tremendous volcanic explosion in
the Straits of Sunda. in August, 1898.
an explosion which produced some of the
most astonishing phenomena man ever
beheld. On the other hand is the sug-
gestion that these clouds consist of mete-
oric dust, that the earth, while following
the sun in its fight among the stars, has
passed through an unswept corner of
space and thereby smutched it's aerial
mantle, AT any rate, we have good. rea-
sons for thinking that such dust exists in
the interstella regions.
Either view must, upon due considera-
tiOn, lead US to a clearer conception of
that transparent part of the earth which
we call the atmosphere, and which if it
were suddenly stripped off, would leave
passing spectacle of gasping millions ex-
piring on a rotating ball of rock.