Show All Meteors Cold When They Reach the Earth Meteor authorities due no doubt to the readiness of ordinary folk to believe practically anything of stones atones from the sky are among the most skeptical people on earth Recently we reported their disbelief In is yarns about near collisions between meteors meteors meteors mete mete- ors and airplanes Now It must be revealed that they also put no credence credence cre cre- dence lence In yarns about houses haystacks haystacks hay hal stacks or other objects being set Bet afire by them Dr Charles C. C Wylie Wylle of ot the University University Uni Uni- of Iowa writing In Popular Astronomy says there has never been an authenticated Instance of a meteor setting fire to anything Moreover More More- Moreover e- e over the popular Idea that meteors are Incandescent when they strike e the earth is likewise an error Their r surfaces may reach Incandescence ce for a few seconds high up In the atmosphere but they are soon slowed down so much much that passage through the air cools rather than heats them They stop glowing at an altitude of several miles and are cold when they strike Literary Literary Digest |