Introduction

Certainly every reader of this small book has already seen a shooting star. Out of the clear night sky a small point of light, no larger than its fixed-star neighbors, silently shoots across a segment of the heavens and disappears just as suddenly and as quietly as it appeared. “A star has fallen from heaven,” we say, and some take it as a good omen. Many readers, however, will have seen a rarer occurence in the night sky. Not just a point of light the size of a star, but a great ball accompanied by an eye-catching light display, radiant blue-white or reddish-yellow, silently traverses a great distance in the heavens and disappears below the horizon or suddenly extinguishes. These events are called Meteors. Still rarer and only witnessed by a few fortunate individuals, is a third, more dramatic phenomenon. The night suddenly becomes as bright as day. A large fireball leading a long, luminous trail is seen crossing the sky, and the sounds of whizzing and the clatter of thunder are heard. Lasting only a few spellbinding seconds, the display concludes with an explosive detonation.