The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-17
OUR WORLDS LITTLENESS.
SUGGESTED BY PASSING COMETS
AND VISITING METEORITES.

The Generally Accepted Origin of
These Derelicts and Their Reia-
tion to the Solar System-Astro-
nomicaI Calculations Which Stag
ger the Imagination.
From the New York Commercial Ad-
vertiser.
The day has passed that saw man
kind begin to speculate upon the arri-
val of comet as to what bearing the
| apparition had upon the destinies of
| princes and popes. Yet so thoroughly
| is the superstition of ages ingrained
| that if a really great comet were to
! sweep across our sky it would have
disturbing effect upon thousands
| who, by reason of education and nat
! ural intelligence, are supposed to be
| free from such influences. The advent
| of comet so close to the sun that only
| telescopes can bring on an attack of
| nervousness even among the most SUI
perstitious, but it serves to remind us
once more of the littleness of our world
! and its dependence upon exterior
| forces, known and unknown.
! Comets are considered as part of the
solar system, and so they are, as long
| as they are visible, for while they are
. within the realms of the sun they
must obey his will. But there can be
| no doubt that they come from outer
| space and are picked up by the ire
mendous attractive power of the sun.
| In the mighty space that separates
! star from star, where millions of
| miles must be multiplied by millions
| yet again, We are naturally inclined
| to think of an absolute void; but this
| is far from being the case. Meteoric
| bodies are scattered everywhere, the
| leftover material from the creation of
world systems and so far from any
controlling body that their orbits are
easily DETECTED by the approach of any
new force. If this were not true the
supply of meteorites within the bounds
| of the solar system would long ago
| have either been precipitated to the
| sun or planets or else be revolving in
orbits that would make them stable or
| the planets themselves. AS it is, we
| know that millions are being precip-
, itated to the earth and that vastly
greater numbers fall to the sun and
/ the four giant plants.
The origin of these bodies. while 1t
! cannot be positively asserted, may be
| considered the result of the condensa-
| llOI VI TIE eAlTeIIl6 TlIn WHICH IL
| left behind when the nebula is forming
into worlds; or in individual instances
| it may be that the meteroites are the
matter flung off by the tremendous
| eruptive action of bodies like the sun.
| When these bits of matter are hurled
| into space they will continue in the
I direction of the original impulse until
! their momentum has been exhausted
| by the counter pull of gravity from
the massive body whence it came. But
| in the easily supported case that the
| matter is flung off with such violence
that its momentum exceeds the power
of gravitation, then it will pass into
outer space, never to return. A liquid
mass so projected into space would first
be disrupted and form a multitude of
globular masses, which. cooling with
great rapidity in the intense cold of
interstellar space, would violently eX-
plode, thus forming, of the original
liquid mass, a great cloud of irregular,
broken fragments of stone or metal.
This is precisely what we find in the
case of meteorites which fall upon the
earth, namely, evidence that the mete-
orite was once in the presence of hy-
drogen gas, with which we know most
of the stars to be surrounded; that 1t
has once been in a molten state, sud
denly cooling to a solid and that in
every instance we have a fragment
broken from a larger body.
When a flock of these tiny bodies n.y.
ing through space, millions upon mil
lions of miles from any mass of great
attractive power, they must from time
to time encounter other bodies similar
to themselves and the combined mass
of the larger swarm may be sufficient
to pick up and permanently annex the
smaller. Or two swarmS may have
collision, in which case there is grand
exhibition of celestial fireworks. Or,
again, after millions of years of fight,
a swarm of meteors comes within the
attraction of another star, which, there
is one chance among great many
millions, may be our sun. Instantly 1T
swerves from it's track and makes for
the attractive body. and just as body
falling to the earth, rushes down with
constantly increasing speed. This mo-
ticn, however, is not direct but stand
ing, because ii was already in motion
when it started for the sun. This mo-
mentum is so constantly accelerated
that when it comes to it's nearest ap-
proach to the sun instead of dropping
into the fiery mass the meteor swarm
rushes on past and continues its fight
into unknown space.
1t sometimes happens, however, that
the fight of meteors passes close to
one of the greater planets, and it's mo-
mentum so checked that 1t travels
about the sun at such an enfeebled
pace that it's path is changed to an
elliptical circuit about the sun, which
holds it as a member of his system
forever after. This gives our periodic
showers of meteors, from such swarms
as by the rarest of chances cross the
earths orbit at the very time that the
earth makes it's annual visit to the
same place. For one such swarm of
which we are cognizant, there must
be millions that circle unrecognized
about the sun.
If the meteor cloud rashly comes too
near the sun the terrific heat to which
IL is subjected must inevitably turn a
large portion of its substance into gas.
The swarm passes on, wholly or part
ly changed to gaseous form, the gas
streams away under some repellant in
fuence, presumably electrical, of the
sun. Then we have a comet which scars
away, to return or not, according to
the luck il has had in meeting with
Jupiter and the other great planets. AS
for the comets which come swimming
into our sky and pass forever on, with
great tails already formed, these, ac-
cording to the theory indicated, have
had a close acquaintance with some
other sun among the countless mil
liens in space. So, when one of these
visitors come into our system, we may
fancy that it has bathed in the fierce