Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-10-16
8 Amt p AU l.:
COmct.ary.

4.
Nature for some time past i'll consideration Vi
the distinguished celestial ''S'''',' P'eS'' ~
our system, and this morning lay "iia' we
have to say before our readers ere our lar
travelled friend finally leaves us.
One of the first remarks suggested when
s,e,lpr of comets and doubtless true one
i that they are mysterious bodies and not
likely ever to be fully understood. But wmie
,b;s i doubtless true, and the same general
remark will in a measure apply to all oo)ec's
of astronomical research, we have no sympa-
thy with those who would dismiss this nooie
science, even when applied to such strange
and erratic objects rs comets, with 'he SUI
complacenti remark, that 1t is all conjecture:
the astronomers know no more ABOUT TINS
subject than we do Of all minds in COM
munitv we have little patience with those who
while they think themselves above docile
and yulcar belief in what science teaches, and
congratulate themselves upon wise appilca-
ton of the principle of philosophc doubt, dis
play in all their conversation 4 most lamenta-
bic iqnorance of the cardinal principles and
facts of the subject; or if they know the facts
and principles, most hopeless impotence q
mind in reducing them to any order and de-
pendance, or separating well ascertained and
substantial results from the vagaries of pre-
lending fools, or the puzzling problems which
all candid and honest scientific men frankly
acknowledge still demand solution.
The province of the solar system, of which
Neptune is the outermost planetary seminal
has been extended about thirty times through
the far distant adventure, of those erratlc bo-
dies-the Comets extended truly, but as a
vast terra iacognita And in addition to the
fact that we know comparatively little of those
distant shores from which. these bodies return
to acknowledge the sun as their sovereign, all
this wide territory is nothing to the vas'
depths of space which still lie between us and
the nearest fixed star, and through which i
is not impossible some of these eXiled wander
ers are destined to pass, after leaving our sys
tenn, on ajourney perhaps ofmyriads ofyears
In regard to the comets in general, the fol
lowing facts have been pretty satisfactorily
determined:
Their Physical Constitution.-They ar
composed of very light, rare, and attenuate(
matter, whatever may be its nature. 1t can
not be of gaseous form, for if So it would re
tract the light passing through it, which ;
IL, +ol A-tr
not the case. The nuclei of the comets, even
are probably far less dense then our own at
moSphere, so that fears from such cOntin
gencv as collision between stray come
and the earth are entirely gratuitous, and to
gether with the absurd notion that these VIOLA
tile bodies rowing on errands best known t
themselves, have power to effect importan
changes in our weather at distance of bil
lions of miles, should be consigned toignoran
heads and superstitious minds where the,
properly belong. That the physical constitu
ton of these bodies is such as we have re
marked, is proven by various circumstances
such as that faint stars even can be seen nc
only through their tails, but through their nj
clei themselves, and that while the planet
and their satellites disturb or retard the con
cts in their orbits, they are themselves M
the least affected in turn by the former. Son
years ago comet got entangled among Jup
ters satellites, but affected them no more tina
the wings of pigeon disturb the dead tre
top through which it flies
Their Number.-Though only some four
five hundred of these bodies have been a
Economically observed or recorded, it is belle
ed they amount to many thousands. Multi
tudes must escape all observation, from IL
fact of their orbits traversing only that part
the heavens which is above the h ORION in Il
daytime. Such comets can only become vi
ible by the rare coincidence of total eclip
of the sun-a coincidence which happened,
related by SENECA, sixty-two years befo
served very near the sun. However, sever
have been of such extraordinary brilliancy
to be seen with the naked eye at noon-sut
as the comets of 1902, 1882 and 1S43, al
OF 43 b. c., which appeared during the gam,
celebrated by AUGUSTUS in honor of Venl
shortly after the death of CAESAR, and whit
the fiattery of poets declared to be the soul
that hero taking its place among the divinite
Their Size.-They are the most volumi
Gus bodies of our system. Their heads ha,
been known to be more than 500, 900 mil
in diameter, and their tails 10000, 900
miles in length; land it is supposed that at IL
rate they often move they must run ava
from the matter forming these latter appe
dages, like tad-poles losing their tails. IIo,
ever they are constantly throwing off new ma
ter to keep up these formidable switches.
Hon they INore.-They move in elliptic Q
bits, in one of the foci of which the sun
situated; but unlike the planets, which alwa,
move from West to East, the comets revol
in orbits inclined at all possible angle
and move in all possible directions. JudgiI
from the immense portion of their orbits whit
hes beyond Neptune, it has been imagine
that the central body of some other system
placed in the distant focus of each of their or
its, and that in this way all the different sy
TENS OF the universe, are, as it were, unite
into one, by the INSTRUMENTATION Of cor
cts But this is more conjecture than an,
thing else; besides, few comets have bee
found to move in hyperbolas These, fro
the nature of the case, can never, except /
some accident, return to our system, as it is
the very nature of hyperbolic path to run q
into infnity. A comet which describes an {
lptic path, must have visited the sun befol
and must return again (unless some accide
occur); and it is ascertained that the norm
path of comets is the elliptic one, so that me
Of those observed may be said definitely to
permanent members of our system, obeying
their motions the laws of celestial moveme
discovered nv KrpICP