Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 152, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1918 — Shooting Stars Date Back Into the Prehistoric Times [ARTICLE]

Shooting Stars Date Back Into the Prehistoric Times

Our knowledge of shooting stars extends into the oldest history of humanity, back into prehistoric times. Yet today no one knows exactly what a shooting star is, or from where it comes, says the Popular Science Monthly. A hypothesis proposed in 1875 and generally accepted today is that meteorites are fragments broken from small planetary masses by volcanic explosions, brought about by a sudden expansion of gases, steam and probably hydrogen. The broken bits, after their separation, are believed to arrange themselves in swarms which cross the orbit of the earth in accordance with a definite law. Shooting stars, then, undoubtedly come from within our solar system and are broken bits of a world body destroyed by volcanic events. Many meteorites have been found in Arizona.