The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-28
being new, viii not interfere with IFS

being new, viii not interfere with It's
light.
The meteors come from the eastward
and the earth will be moving toward that
quarter so thai the velocity with which
they enter the atmosphere viii be nearly
a maximum. IL is as if two trains moving
in opposite directions should meet, one (the
EARTH travelling eighteen miles in a sec
ond and the other 0he meteors) twenty-sX
miles in a second.
The moon too. VIII be involved in The
shower Being without any appreciable at
mosphere, its surface win have no pro
lection against the hail of meteors, and
the spectacle Of the striking, if we could
witness it near by, would probably as
tonish us beyond measure. No doubt
large meteor. when il hits the moon, IS
not only itself disslpated but produces a
pocket of molten rock where il strikes. IN
fact, the ianumerable pockmarhs that
cover the moons surface may be due to
the impact Of meteors, and they show Us
what the experience of the earth would be
but for its atmospheric protection.
The past history of the Leonid meteors
possibly predicts their future. Unth the
year 126 of our era, there is reason TO be-
licve, they We're free wanderers in open
space. Then they encountered the planet
Uranus ana were diverted into a closer
orbit around the sun, interesting that CT
the earth What happened to Uranus when
they met we shall never know although
the fact that Uranus still serenely pur-
sues its distant orbit indicates that that
planet was not the chief sufferer from
the encounter. Perhaps before the meet
ing with Uranus the meteors formed a
comet as the Andromeda meteors did be-
fore 1872 What the ultimate effect OF
their repeated encounters with the earth
will be is hardly, problematical. Every
time they are more widely scattered.
But we cannot be certain that we have
yet met the densest mass of them that
crosses our orbit, and the possibility ex-
lists that they may terrify the world again
more effectually than they have ever done
before. The best advice of the astrono-
mer is to keep an eve on them.
The Andromeda meJeors, due on Nov.
o. have had even more remarkable
career than that Of the Leonids, although
their history is comparatively brief. They
We're never seen before 1872, although pre-
vious to that time a well-known comet
Travelled in their track. Something Won
derful happened to that comet fifty years
ago. Just what il was nobody knows
possibly a clash with an asteroid-but aft
er the accident, whatever il may have
been, the unfortunate comet was found
TO have been broken in two. 1t survived
the separation although its parts had
been flung hundreds of thousands of miles
asunder, and, continuing along its former
orbit came back as a double comet in
1859
But when it was next due in 1872. in
stead of the twin comets, a dash of me-
teors appeared in the sky, indicating that
the comets had met with another disaster,
and that the earth had encountered por-
ton of their shattered remnants. In 1885
the meteors appeared again, and in the
midst of their display, as / have already
told, an iron mass fell from the sky i'm
Tc. ffara
more, and what surprises they have i'm
store for us, nobody can tell.
NO astronomer can doubt that they will
arrive on time, but whether few or many
remains to be seen.
On this occasion the moon will not be
so oblising as she is when the Leonids are
due. The moon viii be fun on the night
of the 9th, and will food the heavens
with her light, so that faint meteors will
be lost in the glare
Instead OF running to meet the An
dromeda meteors, as It does with the Leo
nids the earth will move away from them.
and it is only in consequence of their
greater velocity that they can overtake it.
The result rs that their movements in the
atmosphere viii seem to those who have
watched the swiftly flying Leonids to he
very slow. In fact. the difference in the
appearance Of the two acts of invaders
from space viii be very striking They
are es different in looks as Spaniards and
Chinamen
The Leonids are very swift. their pre-
vailing colors are blue and green, and they
leave behind them trails of vivid bright
ness like scrawls written on the black sky
with phosphorescent ink.
The Andromedes on the other hand
move deliberately. do not leave long trains
and when they exhibit color show red
as their favorite hue.
As TO peril from meteors it should be
said that the most dangerous kind appar-
entity do not belong to any well-known
swarm, but travel independently through
space, ana strike unanuouuced into the at
mosphere Such meteors frequently reach
the ground, and people have on rare occa-
sious been killed by them. But among the
hundreds Of thousands of meteors that
filled the sky as thick as snowhakes in
1885, 1866, 1872 and 1895, only one (the Maza-
pill from was seen to strike the earth.
and there is doubt whether that ono he
longed to the swarm or came along indie
pendenuy of ii.
In another way, however. these meteors
may bring peril Having once entered the
atmosphere and been burned, the sub
stances that composed them cannot escape
again. In the form Of gases and micro
SCOPE dust they continue to float IN the
air. and finally descend to the ground and
the surface Of the sea
In the Arctic regions meteoric dust has
sometimes been found sprinkled on the
white cXpenses Of virgin snow Deep-sea,
sOundings have shown that the ooze of the
oceans bottom contains great quantities