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Title
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Letter to the Editor. Meteoric Cycles.
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Description
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METEORIC CYCLES.
to THE EDITOR OF THE AGE.
Sin,— In your issue of 12th' ult. a cutting appeared from an English contemporary dated Gth November last, stating that " the sky would be furrowed by numerous shooting stars 011 the night of 13th and 14th November. Next tho
ahowor will be more noticcnble and attain its maximum in November, 1699." Your first correspondent rc meteoric cycle ("T.K.," 29tli ult.) is thu fairly right in hi nuriniso that about this timo shooting Btar should occur, but wrong in idea that such would be tho climax of a 30 year cycle. Your second correspondent, C. II. , Smyth (2nd inst.), while right in the main, is in error ih asserting that " no display of thoso shooting star, or ' Leonids, : ' as they aro called, is likely to occur before tho 12th or 13th November, ISO'J." For allowing 33 year or thereabouts to one meteoric cycle, still — to further 3uote from your extract iu 12th ult. — " it is j issemmated along its elongated orbit round tbe I sun over a vast extent of hundreds of millions | of mile3, 00 that the passago of the stars lasts manv yeftV3." Flamtnarion Pop. Ast., 1891, pp. 532-552) goes extensively into tho nubjcct of shooting star, and this is what ho says, infer alia : — " This apparition is not equally remarkable every year, but its brightness varies periodically, the maximum returning every 33 years nearly; tho ahowor is then renewed" for several years, but gradually diminishes, and at last ceases to be noticed during a long period, to
be reproduced later ou and pas again through a maximum at the end of 33 year. Moreover, the swarm of asteroids of tho month of November having a small thickness, the earth take but a few hours to traverse it ; tho maximum also is visihlo in some circumscribed regions, which vary each year." Ho further show that a large number of radiant points havo been determined for different epochs of tho year— tho November meteors being termed " Leonids," because their path diverges from the sumo point of the sky (called the point of emanation or radiant) which is in the constellation of The Lion, those of the night ot 10th August being culled " Fcracids "
from Constellation Fcrseus and so on. Ho then instances among other the splendid show of shooting star of 27th November, 1872 aud 1885, and gives on the authority of Simon Neweomb, the American mathematician, that 148,000,000,000 shooting r.tar fall annually to the earth. Flammarion also agrees with Professor Schiaparelli, of Milan, in considering tho display of November and August to be connected with the appearanco of the great comota of 1800 and 18G2, tho one with a revolution of 33 and the other of 121 years. Tho comet of 1831 and Bielu's comet havo similarly an appendago of shooting stars, and he therefore! concludes that cometa, like shooting star, must be swarms of meteor derived from nebulous masses, strangers to our planotary system— although, as lie adds, we must not expect to find a comet for each shower of shooting stars. Iu conclusion, may I refer to an interesting extract that appear in The Leader, 28fch November last, from tho licichsanzieger, giving statement of Professor Foerster, of tho Berlin Royal Observatory ? Ho writes to show that the prophecy of the so-called "destruction of the world" through the shooting stars of November, 1899, is "founded on imprudent, inexact, and misunderstood scientific reports." And he sets forth clearly the reasons why. As Baxter was again found to be faulty iu giving -5th March last a the end of the world, other prophets have variously named 1897, 1898 and 1899 as the true and correct year. To thoso at all troubled by such forecasting of events the calmly confident refutation of Professor Foorstor may como with considerable comfort. — Yours. &c..
4th January. E. WILSON DOBBS.
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Date Issued
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1897-01-06
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Creator
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E. Wilson Dobbs
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Publisher
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The Australasian
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Location State Territory
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Victoria
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Location Town City
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Melbourne
