Green Mountain Freeman

The New Theory of Shooting Stars.

A curious confirmation of Sir John Herschel's theory of the origin of shooting stars is now attracting public attention in Great Britain. It will be remembered that Sir John, at the recent meeting of the British Association at Dundee, stated his opinion at length, that the light of comets and of shooting stars was identical in nature, and that their substance was probably also identical. He believed that meteors in general had their origin from comets, and though he would not deny that there might be exceptions to this law, he thought it would be found to be of almost universal application.

The novelty of the theory made a great sensation among the savans, and many of them thought it impossible to reconcile the theory with the periodical showers in November, which seemed due to the passage of the earth through a vast multitude of meteoric bodies revolving in a regular orbit. But Prof. Adams, the distinguished discoverer of the planet Neptune, has, in an unexpected way, confirmed Herschel's theory. By profound calculations of the orbit which the supposed meteors must follow to conform to observations long made, he finds that the revolution cannot be made in 354 or 377 days, as Prof. Newton supposed in his prediction of the great shower last November; but must cover a period of 33 25-100 years, and the orbit must extend beyond the orbit of Uranus. He is inclined, therefore, to abandon the theory of innumerable meteors in revolution, as untenable. By another series of calculations he finds that the revolution of a telescopic comet—Vallier's comet, discovered by Tempel, January, 1867, coincides almost identically with the meteoric orbit needed to explain the November showers, and though, at the time of publishing these observations, he had not apparently heard of Herschel's theory, he gives his own opinion that the meteoric shower must take its rise from this newly discovered comet. His report will awaken new interest in the scientific world.