The times., 1899-10-22

were drawn Dy the earth from neDulOuS
body which bore the same relation to the
solar system that comets dc. and which,
like them, reyolved around the sun, but
between the earth and the sun. There
were many astronomers who believed that
this nebulOus body" which supplied the
meteors was identical with that nebulous
body long known under the name OF the
Zodiacal Light. and that it was in fact from
the outer eXtremities of this strange light
that the meteoTs were derived, they being
attracted to the earth al that point where
the earth in its annual revolution ap-
proaches nearest orr perhaps passes
through the extremities of the Zodiacal
Light,
Leo, or the Lion, the constellation
whence these meteors seem to come, has
many interesting members. 1t ranges
from west to east along the Zodiac, over
more than forty degrees, all parts OF the
figure, excepting the feet, lying north OF
the eclptic. Reguus alpha Leonis is a
star of the first magnitude, which lies
very near the echptic and is much USED
in astronomical observations. North OF
Regulus lies semicrcle OF FIVE bright
stars arranged in the form CT sickle, Of
which ReguIus is the handle, and extend
ing over the shoulder and neck of the
Lion. DenebOla, conspicuous star in the
Lions tail, lies twenty-five degrees east
of Regulus. Twenty bright stars in all
compose this constellation.
The Coming Meteoric shower.
A Times reporter was told at the Naval
Observatory that it could not be predicted
with absolute certainty at what hour the
meteoric fall of November will begin. 1t
is thought that the shower will reach
maximum at about 1 o'clock on the morn
ing of November IS. The fall will prob
ably begin four or FIVE hours earlier than
this with small bursts of meteors.
Although these meteors revolve around
the sun in definite orbit. the point of their
intersection with the orbit of the earth
moves forward at the rate of degree and
a half each year, thus throwing the time
of the fall of the meteors, as seen from
the earth, a little later every year. 1t
has been stated that the remarkable fali
in 1888 took place on the night of No
vember 13. There was another great
shower in the morning Of November a.
1866, and the approaching display will
occur late in the night of November H.
The coming shower, provided the weather
shall be clear will be observable through
out the whole of North America, in Eu-
rope Asia, and part of the southern hem
isphere. The phenomenon of meteorlc
shower is usually a nOiseless one. When
the streak of light is first formed, it is
narrow and perfectly straight, but it soon
becomes serpentine and assumes an IL
regular figure, as it drifts along under the
influence OF the wind currents in the upper
region.
Critical observation of the shower will
be made at the Naval Observatory, and it
is said that the Leonids viii be the cen
tre of systematic and scientific Observa-
tiOn throughout the northern hemisphere.
Fragments of II Comet.
AS has been said, the Leonids are
thought to be the fragments OF a comet
that blew up more than three thousand
years ago. An astronomer, in speaking
with a Times reporter, said of comets that
OF their physical nature little is under
stood. 1t is usual, he said, to account for
the variations that their tails undergo by
referring them to the agencies Of heat and
cold The intense heatfto which they are
subject in approaching SO near the sun as
some of them do Is the reason given for
he vast expansion OF 1.-THE nebulous at
mosphere which, it is believed, forms their
rails, and the great cold 10 which they are
exposed in receding TO such vast dis
tances from the sun is thought to account
for the condensation of this same nebulous
tail
approached within 10000 miles OF the
sun (the distance Of the earth from the
sun is about 95, 600, 600 miles). The heat
which that comet submitted to is calCu-
lated to have been $4,000 times that which
the earth receives in the same time, and
two thousand times hotter than red hot
iron.
/ This theory of expansion and contraction,
/ however, does not account for the fact that
the tail of the comet usually extends in a
line opposite to the sun. Those comets
! which have their perihelion very near the
/ sun. like the comet referred to, must cross
1 the orbits Of the planets in the earth's sys-
! TEN. This fact has sometimes given rise
( to a popular fear that a great collision be-
/ tween comets and the earth might at some
/ time occur Astronomers have figured that
/ this contingency is exceedingly remote
/ The narrowest escape which it is known
/ that the earth had, was with Biela's comet
/ in 1892 That comet, in returning TO the
/ sun. crossed the ecliptic very near the
earth's track, and had the earth then been
/ at that point of its orbit, there would have
been a disastrous collision. The earth was
within one month Of reaching that point
1t was only fifty million miles away.