Show H ere Are Scientific Facts About Shoot Stars By International News Service v 7 D. D C. C Dec 29 W WASHINGTON y V You have probably wondered as you have watched a brilliant brilliant bril bril- llant shooting star burn its way through the blackness of a summer summer summer sum sum- mer night where these strange visitors visitors vis viz- come from and where they go A recent publication of the Smithsonian Institution deals with the origin of shooting stars and fireballs both In Included Included In- In eluded in the term meteor The various vailous various vari vail ous explanations put forward at different different different dif dif- dif dif- ferent times in the past to account for these striking phenomena are discussed I and the author then takes up the present present present pres pres- ent Ideas and the most prot probable able theory as to their origin The knowledge of stones which have fallen from heaven extends into the oldest history of humanity back into prehistoric times Among Antong the Chinese the mention of ot heaven stones goes back to years and falling stones scones have always been known by tue people of Asia Minor by the Greeks and Ro Ro- I mans By all these ancient peoples the messengers of heaven were generally generally generally gen gen- regarded as divine divine- gifts But with the advance of Christianity another another another an an- other idea of meteorites became preva preva- lent Gradually there was lost the them oriental conception of them as blessings blessings blessings bless bless- ings and through the middle ages and almost down clown to the present day the falling of meteorites was considered considered considered con con- a warning of approaching mis mis- fortune By the latter part of the eighteenth century the occurrence of ot falling failing stones had been so long forgotten that thata a fall which occurred near Luce in France in 1768 caused great great embarrassment embarrassment embarrassment embar embar- to the professors and academicians academicians academicians acad acad- at Paris because they did lId not know what to make of tue event A similar condition prevailed also in America for when someone told President President President Pres Pres- ident Jefferson in Ia 1807 that two professors professors professors pro pro- had described the raIl Tall of a astone astone astone stone he declared One can rather believe that two Yankee professors lie lieth th than n believe that stones fall from heaven Passing over the beautiful mythical conceptions of the oriental peoples and the assumption in the middle ages that they might be due to lightning ono one can divide into two groups those holding opinions as to me tue origin of meteorites supporters of ot the hypothesis sis that they came from space and did not belong originally r to the earth and its atmosphere and the supporters of the hYP hypothesis thesis that they sid did originally belong lb to our planet The first of these groups falls into two sun STOUpS those who believe that meteorites como come from unlimited space and the supporters of the hypothesis that aro are ejected from lunar volcanoes The second group upholding the terrestrial origin of meteorites is divided into those who think that they originated from the constituents of the atmosphere and those who consider them ejected from terrestrial volcanoes There have been many respected adherents ad ad- I ad-I of the hypothesis o 01 os the origin of meteorites from tho volcanoes of the moon Telescopic observation gave in information in- in I formation as to tho them of the moon moon upon which craters could be seen and not until It H was established that a a. a volcano on the moon would not possess sufficient energy to impart to an ejected block of stone time necessary initial velocity to reach our arth rth did the hypothesis sis of lunar origin fall Call into disfavor The Idea that meteorites were formed out of constituents of th the m atmosphere was held only as long as their composition was ns its yet little known It was soon seen that iron nickel chromium silica etc could not not- be contained in the air and this any many other reasons withdrew every support from the of the origin of meteoric masses In the at atmosphere at- at Of longer duration was the theory of oC their terrestrial origin According to this they are said to have been thrown out of the Interior of our planet in the dim early parly ages with so great force that they were vere carried beyond beyond beyond be be- yond the limit of Its attraction to form forma a ring around it like that of Sat Saturn rn out of which fragments tall fall to the earth again Astronomic hypothesis as to the origin of meteorites a OKI dM J no not de de- de I until much later and took their rise from the idea that meteorites S shooting stars and comets were all orthe of or the same samo character By Dy studying the orbits of comets and meteors the tho theory theory the the- ory cry was formulated that comets which have become periodic split up into periodic periodic peri pen swarms or of of shooting stars which revolve in the courses of or the mother comet The fireballs are according to this theory nothing more nor less than shooting stars which have been driven into lower layers of air an and ana 1 appear to tous tous tous us in larger sizes In opposition to this theory an hypothesis hypothesis hy hy- was proposed in 1875 based upon a geological basis upon the study of the component material of the meteorites and upon the times Umes of arrival of meteorites or of like composition composition com com- position According to this theory which is generally accepted today from the shape and the sided surfaces surfaces sur stir faces of meteorites they are fragments fragments fragments frag frag- ments broken from small planetary masses by volcanic explosions Such explosions can only be brought about by sudden expansion or of gases and steam among which hydrogen may have been in the first rank ranI as a cosmis phenomenon is JS the de destroyer destroyer destroyer de- de of planetary masses as we learn from the constituents or of meteorites meteorItes meteor meteor- ites in harmony with the solar development development devel devel- I of stars which all go through I a volcanic phase The broken bits i their their separation are arc arranged in i swarms which cross tho orbit of ot the thc earth In In accordance with a n. definite law Meteorites then according to tho tim authority quoted undoubtedly come from within our solar system and aro are broken bits of or a world body destroyed by volcanic events |