|
Meteoric Showers and Meteorites
China also compiled a huge amount of records on meteoric showers. The Bamboo
Annals records a meteoric shower in 2133 BC in today's Henan
Province. This is the first mention in the world of a meteoric shower.
Meteorites, both of iron and of stone, often fall to the earth, and this was
noticed by the ancient Chinese. Song Yingxing, a scientist of the late Ming
period, once said, "When stars fall to the earth, they become stones." Shen Kuo,
a scientist of the Song Dynasty, observed three meteoric explosions one evening
in 1064, and described in detail an incident of meteorites falling into the
garden of a farmer in Jiangsu
Province in his book Dream Stream Essays.
Author: Jessie
|
|