Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-11-13

pared with it's enormous length The
width is such that the earth when it
passes obliquely through the stream is
exposed to the downpour of meteors for
about five hours
For the Leond stream Miss Cierke en-
ployes bijou smile-'a ring with gem
on it." The ring is the long eclipse in
which the shower revolves now close
CROUCH to the sun to permit the earth to
cross it's orbit, again swinging far out
beyond Uranus to the limit of planetary
space, yet never quite losing it's obedi-
ence to the suns retaining pull.
Along this long eclipse is spotted
chain of this cosmic gravel, enough to
when the earth plows MS through the
orbit. The gem, brilliant indeed. was
the great central agSlomeratlon of the
mass which yielded such terrifying
1856. the persistent remnant of the disin-
tegrating comet gone into gravel along
its orbit.
for these calendar displays, now gen.
orally accepted. Astronomy has com
puted the elements of each meteoric
shower as it occurs. All of them have
been found to obey the rules which gov
ern the comets of known periods, those
which have been proved to have ellipti
cal orbits, and thus are chained from
their first wild flight into regular though
erratic. members of the solar system. In
tLis theory the meteor nucleus repre-
sents the disintegrated form of comet,
possibly once as brilliant an object as
Haleys comet, now speeding into view.
At intervals along its orbit each comet
runs the risk of several collisions, both
| on it's outward voyage into space and
upon it's return, to be spectacle in our
heavens. 1t is merely matter of the
mathematics of orbital revolution of two
bodies obeying in different order the same
central impulses.
Sooner or later, reckoned by cycles OF
10 q
gle for the occupancy of the same spot
at the same time. 1t is the comet which
bears the brunt; the earthen pots come
not back from the cistern where the iron
pot is filling. The comet has been shat
tered and the meteor shower is its sur
vival. The earth has been seen to tear
through such mass as a comet may be
considered to possess; it has been seen
to disrupt it.
At first, in the early existence of this
degradation phase, the disintegrated
cometary nucleus is the brilliant on the
| ring; at the time appointed for the
comet the vein of meteors shows some
few of it's fragments flashing into titful
brilliance at the outer envelope of our
atmosphere. But each pebble that once
was part of the comet is a tiny unit of
the system: it must obey the fundamen-
tai law of revolution: even as the great
est of the planets. 1t is subject IN Its
minuteness to the laws of perturbation.
and perturbation acting counter to velOci-
ty along the orbit means drag.
Inevitably the drag dots the orbit with
laggard pebbles: in slow lapse of long time
the brilliant creates the ring in which 1t
is set. AS time goes longer on the ring
becomes first complete, then more evenly
spaced, until at last the brilliant van
ishes, the setting has absorbed the gem.
To the slow and inevitable change is
added the suddcnness of collision,
brief accomplishment OF what would
otherwise be more slowly done. AS We
have already seen Leverrier found the
solar history of the Leonid rain to begin
in the capture of a comet accomplished
by the enormous influence of remote IRA
nus in the year 126 of our era. At that or
at some later period the parent comet
was in collision with some OF the greater
planets.
Its substance was rent to pieces and
the meteor gem was set upon its orbit.
In 1898 and in 1866 the earth tore through
the nucleus of the fragments. Some few
it burned and destroyed by the friction
engendered in its atmosphere; only
few, for the estimate of 100000 Is less
than the counting of the veriest pinch OF
sand.
To countless others it assigned a per
turbation, a drag destined to spread them
evenly along the orbit The shower of
1899 showed the loss; it is computed that
in less than two centuries the gem will
have vanished in the evenly dotted ell
lipse. 1t has been figured out that III the
point of the comets ORBIT WHlch Is soon
to be crossed there exists such close
ness of distribution of the icy pebbles
as to afford this year considerable as
play.
This cometary theory of explanation
was not reached without a struggle. In
the early days of thought, when the
earth was the center of revolving petit
nesses. it was sought to find a telluric
origin for these phenomena not theh
pc received to he periodic
Some essayed the proof that the Volca-
noes which carried ruin to peaceful lands
no less bombarded the heavens: The
shooting stars were considered to be put
the volcanic elections falllnS, as ran they
must inevitably,
When this theory failed to give salts
fG elton recourse was had to theory
that in some sudden way the Vapors OF
tie upper sky were agglOmerated: as
soon as they became ponderable they
were subject to the forces of gravitatlon
and inevitably fell. But no one was abe
to account for the power which acted IN
tlis sudden creation of ponderable mass
from floating gas. nv
Next the moon was sought out. The
telescopes showed pitted mountain peaks;
huge craters. At once the idea gained
ground that the volcanoes OF the Satei-
lite we're bombardng the parent planet.
The ballstics We're computed. 1t was
established that if an object could be
elected from themoon with an INITIAL We
lGcitv of 5000 feet in a second 1t would
reach the earth's atmosphere with We
locity of 5000 feet. Yet to correspond
with the measured velocity at the earth
would call for IA times the MINIMUM We
locity of projection at the lunar SuI oCp.
No such power could be discovered as
active upon the dead surface winch W.
out in our southwest remains unsolved
the greatest problem, whether or meteor.
ties or rain of shooting stars, vast
cavity for which the explanation mas
been offered that it's rendinS OF the
| earth's crust marks the impact Oh SOME
| celestial projectile.