Observations of falling stars have been used to determine
roughly the average number of meteorites which attempt to
pierce the earth’s atmosphere during each twenty-four hours.
Dr. Schmidt, of Athens, from observations made during seventeen
years, found that the mean hourly number of luminous meteors
visible on a clear, moonless night by one observer was fourteen,
taking the time of observation from midnight to 1 A.M.
It has been further experimentally shown that a large group
of observers who might include the whole horizon in their
observations would see about six times as many as are visible
to one eye. Prof. H. A. Newton and others have calculated that,
making all proper corrections, the number which might be visible
over the whole earth would be a little greater than 10,000 times
as many as could be seen at one place. From this we gather that
not less than 20,000,000 luminous meteors fall upon our planet
daily, each of which in a dark clear night would present us
with the well-known phenomenon of a shooting-star. This number,
however, by no means represents the total number of minute
meteorites that enter our atmosphere, because many entirely
invisible to the naked eye are often seen in telescopes. It
has been calculated that the number of meteorites, if these
were included, would be increased at least twentyfold; this
would give us 400,000,000 of meteorites falling in the earth’s
atmosphere daily.--J. NORMAN LOCKYER, _Harper’s
Magazine_.
(1380)
=Heavens, The=--See PRIVILEGE.
=Height=--See GIANTS AND DWARFS; UPWARD LOOK.
=Height Abolishing Burdens=--See WEIGHT DIMINISHED BY ASCENT.