The history of meteors and meteor showers
Abstract
The history of meteors and meteor showers can effectively start with the work of Edmond Halley who overcome the Aristotelean view of meteors as being an upper atmospheric phenomenon and introduced their extraterrestrial nature. Halley also estimated their height and velocity. The observations of the Leonids in 1799, 1833 and 1866 established meteoroids as cometary debris. Two red herrings were caught — fixed radiants and hyperbolic velocities. But the 1890 to 1950 period with two-station meteor photography, meteor spectroscopy and the radar detection of meteors saw the subject well established.
- Publication:
-
Vistas in Astronomy
- Pub Date:
- 1982
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0083-6656(82)90010-1
- Bibcode:
- 1982VA.....26..325H