The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-13
SHOWERS OF SHOOTING STARS
THIS WEEK WILL BE A BRILLIANT
ONE IN THE SKIES.

n
watchers for Shooting stars Must
Look to the East.
During the early part of the coming
u.cel5 observers of the evening sky may
witness a meteoric display representing
,be vanguard of a coming host in which
the astronomical world is just now much
Interested Every old person well remem-
hers the great meteoric shower of 1888
which then created so much consterna-
ZION all over the Western world
Even now distinct feeling of
supersttious dread is revived in
the minds of the ignorant, and
especially of the negroes, when the scenes
of that awful night are recalled. The
grandeur and awfulness of that occasion
can never be forgotten by any one who
witnessed it. From every quarter of the
skv the stars seemed to fan like blazing
dre-balls for several hours. and many
thought the end of the world to be at
hand
on any clear night a few of these
shooting stars may be seen darting across
the sky at irregular intervals, but at GER
tain times they are much more abundant
than at others; for instance, it has been
observed that every year about Aug
10. they are quite numerous, and once
every thirty-three years about Nov 10,
they appear in countless numbers. Much
study has recently been given to these Gu
rious bodies. and what was once regarded
with such superstltious dread, Is now more
omical phenomenon.
Occasionally one of these fiery
bodies falls to the ground, and
a chemical analysis of the stony looking
mass shows it to be composed largely Of
iron and nickel and a few other clements
none of which are new to us. AS a rule
they are quite small, their average weight
being about one grain, but occasionally
those Weighing from one pound to a ton
enter our atmosphere with brilliant effect
Much speculation has been INDUCED in by
astronomers concerning their origin and
movements, and while the orbits of many
of them have been determined with con-
siderable accuracy their origin is still I'M
known. 1t has been thought by some that
they have been hurled off from the sun or
AloOA III tllC NlsldlkALAkldSl ny NOAEdLlC GIup
tons, but the most probable theory re-
CARDS them as planetary remnants left
swinging in space after the nebulous mass
now forming the solar system had rolled it,
self together into worlds of solid matter.
These separate particles continue to revolve
around the sun in perfect orbits of their
own, until they come within the grav-
tation's influence of the earth, when they
plunge into its atmosphere with such enor-
nous velocitles as to fuse them instantly.
Ii the Garth in it's own motion around
the sun should meet these meteoric bodies
head on, as will be the case with those ex-
pected in the next few days they would
enter our atmosphere with a velocity of
forty-four miles a second, or more than
hundred times faster than cannon ball.
The sudden arresting of their motion by
the resistance of the atmosphere develops
sufficient heat to nell them instantly,
while the fine dust of their disintegration
slowly settles 10 the earth. The larger
masses sometimes live through this ordeal
and reach the earth red not, when they
are known as aerohtes, OF meteoriteS.
Sometimes when a large mass from the
cold regions of outer space is thus sud
denly heated upon its surface the unequal
expansion thus produced causes the body
to explode with great violence into many
fragments with a loud sound. But for our
atmosphere, which acts like a cushion to
ward off these celestial wanderers, much
damage to life and property would doubt
less be done by them. AS it is. the fall
of a meteor has been known to produce
very serious results, but the occasions are
rare. The Chinese have record of one
which came to the earth $500 years ago.
destroying several chariots and killing ten
men,. ~
The meteor streams, such as those of
August and November, have a significant
connection with old comets, whose orbits
have been shown 10 be Identical with
these. meteor streams. This has led to
the conclusion that these shooting stars
are nothing more nor less than parts of
old comets, which have become disinte-
grated by the tidal action of the SUMS at
traction until the particles which once
constituted the compact mass of the comet
have been distributed with more or less
uniformity along its orbit. If we imagine
flock of birds flying around a circular
path in a compact group we have a pic
lure analogous to a comet revolving
around the sun. But as some of the
birds will fly faster than others the group
will In time become separated and dis
tributed all around the path. In
The case of the August meteors this
separation and distribution has become
more OF less complete, DuL III the NoNeIn-
her group the particles still compose quite
a compact swarm, extending not more
than one-tenth the distance around the
orbit. The earth in its orbit passes
through the path of these meteors once
every year, about Nov. 10 or IA, but. as 1t
takes thirty-three and one-third years for
the meteor swarm to revolVe. around the
sun, the earth does not encounter them
except once in this time. The recurrence
OF the November meteors every thirty
three years can be traced back for nearly
zOU years. Prior to the second century
OF our era they were coming towards the
solar system from outer space in para
Dolic orbit in a toerably compact swarm,
when the planet Uranus which happened
at that time to be near their path, gave
them so powerful a tug that their orbit
was changed into an eclipse, as we now
know 1t. This occurred in A. d. 126. In
1866 the earth passed through these me-
teors when 1t was day in the Western
hemisphere, and hence the display was
masked by the light of the SUM- but in
the Eastern hemisphere it was observed
with much interest