Evening star., 1953-08-12
Green Shooting Stors
Becoming Common
Scientist Says 'Suucers'
Invariably Are Reflections
By Thomos R. Henry


Shooting stars that look like balls OF
green fire now are quite common
phenomenon.
Hundreds of reports on them have
been received in the past year, DR.. C. C..
Wylie of Iowa State University has
just reported to the American ASsocia.
ton for the Advancement Of Science.
Canadian astronomers also are re-
reporting a considerable number. They
have been mistaken for space ships
from some other planet and the green
color attributed to burning copper in
the hulls Of such craft caused by fric.
ton after striking the earth's atmos-
phere.
But they are just ordinary meteors.
DR.. Wylie says, although the reason for
the green color Is not entirely clear.
From an examination Of eight-year-
old reports he concludes they were just
as frequent then as now.
Flying Saucers Reported.
The reports come to him with reports
Of flying saucers," DR.. wylie says, and
the latter are no mystery to him. He
himself has seen groups Of them ca.
vorting around the skies.
"The typical saucer" he reports, els
seen only on clear days and has the
appearance of q round or oval disk Of
bright aluminium. Use of the word
saucer for any other strange light is
rare.
I'm the summer Of 1948 I saw q
group Of conspicuous saucers and veri-
f1ed that they were produced by metal
planes when driving towards them.
Another check which ! have made is
to call the airport when a saucer is seen
and verify that plane is maneuvering
in that area. A few reported to me
have been produced by birds. The
gliStening white breast of hawk seen
from a critical angle with the sun may
shine like saucer when flying, or like
a tin can when the bird is sitting on
a post.
1T should be noted that a plane may
be close enough to be seen and heard
as plane and yet suddenly become
a saucer with a change in direction
OF travel. A hawk may easily be recog-
n1zed with the naked eye and suddenly
become saucer when it changes the
direction of its fight.
All these SaucerS are simply re-
flected sunlight. They are seen only
when the sun is shining. They gen.
orally are seen only in the part of the
SKY opposite the sun. There Is only one
sighting on each saucer. It may disap-
pear suddenly when the plane turns
and reappear again at different level"
Creation Of new kind of rock not
found anywhere in the eartll's crust
mas just been announced to the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement
Of Science.
1t is crystalized silica, like quartz.
which Is the most abundant of all
rocks formed when the supposedly
LIQUID mantle Of the planet cooled to q
solid.
This material. however, is about a
fourth denSer than quartz and very
much harder, according to the report
ny DR.. l.. Goes, jr., of the research de-
partment OF the Norton Co. of Worces-
ter, Mass. It's hardness is close to that
OF the semiprecious stones, topaz and
garnet.
Silica Base.
The new rock was formed by SUBJ
Jecting mixture Of the most abundant
element in the rocks. silica, and oxygen
to a pressure of $4,000 atmospheres,
about 425,000 pounds to the square inch
at a temperature Of 750 centigrade for
about is hours. It is transformed into
silica glass when heated to 1,700 c..
The new material, the report says.
might very well be mistaken for mica.
except for its extreme hardness and
reactions to some chemical tests.
Creation of this new mineral may
throw considerable light it is pointed
out. on the conditions under which the
earth'S crust was formed. 1t could not,
for example, have been formed in the
hot depths under such heavy pressure
as those used in this experiment..
Otherwise this new form of quartz"
presumably would be abundant in the
present surface rocks. The rock is COM
posed Of small, colorless, hexagonal
crystals.