Part 13 (2/2)

The shower of incandescent asteroids on Nove In 1799, 1833, and 1866, the meteors were so numerous that they were described as showers of rain, especially on the first two dates For several hours the sky was furroith falling stars An Englishwe reproduce (Fig 55), described the pheno (November 12, 1799, 3 AM) The same occurred on November 13, 1833 The ht were reckoned at 240,000

These shooting stars received the name of _Leonids_, because their radiant is situated in the constellation of the Lion

[Illustration: FIG 55--Shooting Stars of Nove_]

This swarm follows the same orbit as the comet of 1866, which travels as far as Uranus, and comes back to the vicinity of the Sun every thirty-three years Hence ere entitled to expect another splendid apparition in 1899, but the expectations of the astronomers were disappointed All the preparations for the appropriate reception of these celestial visitors failed to bring about the desired result The notes istration of only a very s that night, so stars were counted There were more in 1900, 1901, and, above all, in 1902 This swarain is visited by a nuated remains of the Comet of Biela This comet, discovered by Biela in 1827, accomplished its revolution in six and a half years, and down to 1846 it responded punctually to the astronomers who expected its return as fixed by calculation But on January 13, 1846, the celestial wanderer broke in half: each fraght from the Earth in 1852 It was their last appearance That year the twin conificant Soon they vanished into the depths of night, and never appeared again They were looked for in vain, and were despaired of, when on Novenificent rain of shooting stars They fell through the Heavens, numerous as the flakes of a shower of snow

The same phenomenon recurred on November 27, 1885, and confiration of Biela's Co stars

There is an i stars, frohtning, to the incandescent _bolides_ or _fire-balls_ that explode in the at 56 shows an example of these, and it represents a fire-ball observed at the Observatory of Juvisy on the night of August 10, 1899

It arrived from Cassiopeia, and burst in Cepheus

This phenoht It is often accompanied by one or several explosions, the report of which is sometimes perceptible to a considerable distance, and by a shower of lobe of fire bursts, and splits up into luments, scattered in all directions The different parts of the fire-ball fall to the surface of the Earth, under the name of aerolites, or rather of uranoliths, since they arrive from the depths of space, and not from our atmosphere

From the most ancient times we hear of showers of uranoliths to which popular superstitions were attached; and the Greeks even gave the na been sidereal

[Illustration: FIG 56--Fire-Ball seen froust 10, 1899]

[Illustration: FIG 57--Explosion of a Fire-Ball above Madrid, February 10, 1896]

No year passes without the announcement of several showers of uranoliths, and the phenoreat alarm to those itness it One of the most remarkable explosions is that which occurred above Madrid, February 10, 1896, a fragment from which, sent ical Institute, fell i 57) The phenomenon occurred at 930 AM, in brilliant sunshi+ne The flash of the explosion was so dazzling that it even illu clap of thunder was heard seventy seconds after, and it was believed that an explosion of dynaht of fourteen miles, and was seen as far as 435 miles from Madrid!

In one of Raphael's finest pictures (_The Madonna of Foligno_) a fire-ball58), the painter wishi+ng to preserve the remembrance of it, as it fell near Milan, on September 4, 1511 This picture dates from 1512

The dimensions of these meteorites vary considerably; they are of all sizes, from the impalpable dust that floats in the air, to the enormous blocks exposed in the Museuh severalthe shower of hed about four pounds

[Illustration: FIG 58--Raphael's Fire-Ball (_The Madonna of Foligno_)]

These bolides and uranoliths come to us from the depths of space; but they do not appear to have the sa stars They may arise from worlds destroyed by explosion or shock, or even frohtest of them may have been expelled from the volcanoes of the Moon Some of the most massive, in which iron predominates, may even have issued from the bowels of the Earth, projected into space by solobe was perpetually convulsed by cataclysms of extraordinary violence

They return to us to-day after being removed from the Earth to distances proportional to the initial speed iin seems the more admissible as the stones that fall from the skies exhibit a mineral composition identical with that of the terrestrial materials

[Illustration: FIG 59--A Uranolith]

In any case, these uranoliths bring us back at least by their fall to our Earth, and from henceforill remain upon it, to study its position in space, and to take account of the place it fills in the Universe, and of the astronoovern our destiny