Hourly meteor counts were estimated at over 100,000, with the sky appearing as if "stars were falling." It triggered Revelations-style doomsday panic in the United States. The scholar Olmsted correctly pointed out that meteors came from outer space and proposed the comet-debris theory, laying the foundation of meteor astronomy. Qing Dynasty records also note "stars falling like rain."
Account
Hourly meteor counts were estimated at over 100,000, with the sky appearing as if "stars were falling." It triggered Revelations-style doomsday panic in the United States. The scholar Olmsted correctly pointed out that meteors came from outer space and proposed the comet-debris theory, laying the foundation of meteor astronomy. Qing Dynasty records also note "stars falling like rain."
Sources
- D. Olmsted, 1834 meteor research paper
- Veritable Records of the Qing