Westo7i Meteorite of Dec. 14, 1807. 135 



furnishes some measure of the velocity of the meteor relative to 

 the earth's surface. The statement will permit us to allow not 

 quite a second of time between each report, and we thus obtain a 

 velocity as great as four or five miles a second. This result is of 

 course no more than a rude approximation to the truth. 



The velocity thus far spoken of, is only the velocity relative 

 to the earth. Here the question arises, — if the meteor was not a 

 satellite of the earth, what was its absolute rate of motion ? Now 

 it will be noticed (p. 133, lines 14, 15) that the path of the meteor 

 must have been nearly in the same direction with that of the 

 earth at the time. Their directions in azimuth were almost iden- 

 tical ; the direction of the meteor's path in altitude, appears to have 

 been a little below that of the earth. If the meteor was mov- 

 ing around the sun, then nearly the whole of the earth's velocity 

 (at that season) of rather more than nineteen miles a second, — 

 must be added to the meteor's relative velocity to obtain the true 

 velocity. In this view, its absolute rate of motion will be found to 

 have been at least twenty miles a second. 



It remains only to inquire, whether it is more probable that the 

 Weston meteorite was a satellite of the earth, or a primary body 

 moving around the sun. If this meteor had passed the earth's 

 surface in the direction opposite to that of the earth's motion, 

 with about the relative velocity which it exhibited, then we might 

 be compelled to consider it a satellite of the earth. But the pe- 

 culiar direction in which it moved, makes it an ambiguous case. 

 We must therefore resort to other instances, for a solution of the 

 question. Numerous observations on meteoric fire-balls which 

 were without doubt real meteorites, have been made and com- 

 puted. It has most generally been found, that whenever they 

 come in a direction more or less opposed to that of the earth's 

 motion, their velocity is greater than ten miles a second ; which 

 proves them to be in revolution about the sun and not about 

 the earth. Their velocity has indeed more than once, exceeded 

 thirty miles a second. It is then from analogy altogether prob- 

 able that the Weston meteor was a body revolving around the 

 sun, and that if it had approached the earth from the contrary 

 direction, it would have been found moving with a relative velo- 

 city of not less than forty miles a second. 



New Haven, Conn. 



