CELESTIAL FIREWORKS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 5, 7 January 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

CELESTIAL FIREWORKS.

The greatest display of meteqrs*.seen for over 30 years was predicted for Mast month. If the time table of the astronomers is correct this world is passing through tre-^ mendous showers of what the unscientific call : shooting stars.' In all tprobability nearly everyone has wooidered where these millions of so-called, stars' • come from. Their story is simple. Twice a year, in August and again in November, while our planet is travelling its an : nual journey around the sun, it .crosses the path of a great band of meteors. Those in the belt encountered in August have been named Perseids, and those of November Leonids. They mere'_y glow for an instant in a path of light, between | the stars and disappear. Meteors finally reach the• earth,. though not in their original form. The: particles are dissolved into vapour and the vapour is condensed into dust, which is; absorbed, almost without anyone knowing it, by the globe. On mountain tops, in Arctic regions, and in African deserts a brown dust has been found which upon analysis has been believed to be of meteoric origin. There, must be a good deal of if added to the world during the course of a fewcenturies. It is estimated that 140,000,000 meteors annually' fall into our atmosphere, and if the dust of each weighs only a grain., then each year 10.000 tons of meteor dust is added to the earth, and the. weight of the earth must annually increase. by that, amount. .. j Sometimes these bodies fall to the. earth \ in chunks, and are then known as mete-; orites, or more properly aerolites (air-i stones). There is no regularity about their fall, and experts say that nothing pan be known of their origin, although there are those who believe that they are of the same material as" meteors, while others hold that they are entirely different. Iron, nickle, and cobalt are found in them. Plunging into the atmosphere-of the earth at a distance of 70 or SO miles from the surface, the resistance of the air is sufficient to check their flight. So great Is the friction caused by the tremendous speed at which the meteors travel that the heat is sufficient to dissolve -thestones in a streak of fiery vapour. But for the protection afforded by the atmosphere the continuous celestial bombardment might have disastrous results, for the meteors, though small, are nuL tnerous. Many are not visible to the naked eye, and thousands fall during the day, when their fire is dimmed by the greater glory of the sun. Once in 33 years the earth passes through that part of the meteoric belt where the meteors are largest and most numerous, and then the finest meteoric displays are seen. The last great display V was in 1566, and astronomers have scheduled the next as now due. The best disi 'Play, however, will be when passing through the November belt of next year. The holy stone of Mecca and the great. L st °ne of the pyramid of Cholula, in Mexico, are supposed to be meteoric, while the image of Diana of the Ephesians was supposed to have fallen from Jupiter, and was probably of similar origin.— * .'Exchange. , •;,,._..__,__.. .••-'''.