STUDY OF METEORS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

STUDY OF METEORS

RESEARCH in the antarctic Can sound under some circumstances, travel as fast as light? If it cannot, how may scientists account for the experience reported by many observers of meteors that, a swishing or whistling sound reached them while the fire-ball still was in the air, though a hundred miles or more away? This is one of the new questions raised by the intensive study of meteors now going on throughout the world, stimulated by several important recent falls and a wealth of fascinating information is being brought to light by organised meteor hunters under the leadership of such groups as the Society for Research on Meteorites and the American Meteor Society.-

Mr. H. H. Nininger, secretary of the Society for Research on Meteorites in the United States, reported recently in Popular Astronomy that reliable witnesses, under circumstances where there could be little likelihood of error, had reported the swishing sound of meteors several seconds or minutes before the main sound, which usually is a rumble, like thunder, reached them.'Sometimes it was the accompanying sound that called their attention to the .fire-ball. Traditional physics set the speed of sound in air at approximately 1000 feet a second. Most meteors are so high that sound would take minutes to reach ar. observer on earth at this rate. Another matter brought to light by research is the quantity of meteoric material which daily reaches the earth. Mr. Nininger estimated that the mass of even the smallest visible meteors is much greater than has been supposed. From Little America, in the Antarctic, came evidence that a billion or more of these projectiles are entrapped by the earth's atmosphere daily. The Antarctic meteor work is being done under the direction of I)r. Thomas C. l'oulter, senior scientist of the expedition, who has fitted up his tiny shack as a meteor observatory. Six observers arc busy there counting all the meteors which can be seen with the unaided eye and with binoculars. The Antarctic nights, or course, give Dr. Poultor an advantage over other meteor seekers, who have only a few hours each night m which to watch the skies.