JUPITER’S PULL.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18877, 22 February 1933, Page 4

JUPITER’S PULL.

ON LEONID SWARM, WHAT HAPPENED. Again the Leonid meteors disappointed astronomers who watohed for them, expecting a return of the brilliant shower of shooting stars of November 1866. A careful watch, in a beautifully clear sky, at two observatories near Philadelphia, revealed a very sparse display, far inferior to that of tho previous year (writes James Stokely in the New York Times.

In the opinion of Dr. Charles P. Olivier, direotor of the Flower Observatory of the University of Pennsylvania, and president of the Meteor Commission of the International Astronomical Union, the 1899 experience is being repeated. After line showers in 1833, when the entire sky was covered with shooting stars, and in 1866, a repetition whs confidently expected in 1899. The warning of two English astronomers that the planet Jupiter had, by its great gravitational attraction, pulled aside the meteor swarm which should have reached the earth in that year went unheeded.

The previous year had brought forth a good shower, but in 1899 they failed miserably. Again' in 1900 the shower was a failure, but in 1901 it was fairly good. With 1931 and 1930 both having provided a shower better than for years previously, the present situation seems closely parallel. Dr. Olivier is afraid that 1933 will be like 1900, but that in 1934 wo may get into the tail end of the swarm. The reason for this, he explained, might he that the first part of the meteor swarm got past Jupiter without being seriously perturbed, and it was this part that reached us in 1898 and in 1931. The centre of the cluster was affected most, as Jupiter passed closest to It. But when the end of the swarm came along the planet had moved sufficiently far away to enable the meteors to continue In their old orbit.

It had been hoped that since the beginning of the century Jupiter had repaired its previous damage by pulling the swarm back into line, but events seem to Indicate that this is not the case. Dr. Olivier’s observations, and those of his associates at the Flower Observatory, show that the meteors after midnight were seen at the rate of about thirteen an hour. Because of the proxmity of a briliant moon, a few days past full, the fainter ones were hidden, and he estimates that had the night been dark he would have seen about thirty per hour. Several of those seen were brighter than a first magnitude star, and one left a trail behind it which remained visible for about 30 seconds. Another very brilliant one, blue in colour and brighter than Venus, descended diroetiy downward from Leo to the horizon.

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