New-York daily tribune., 1861-07-08

nus sfe'e,s from the excellent engrsNihss
utE.led of DonaIi's three years "e0' Ill,
Se'e aan,s oont, from which are seen apla,
seus 70 -. of lohttowaId the SUM- soon oehuiue ."
aS,o s,ropg repelant power ana i&n'nB ""'! of
sy ,,er like a fountain of light, the "aieiS'i
.oa,,sr;nr into silver spray, form the nihluOu
~o,oncs which we call the tail oi ue coine''
sH ;,h the head of the comet as seen Oy Tue n'A'O
,a npeleus ia very small It's diameter Is not nC.
-, ne bnndfedth of that Of the apparent he'a u
The fountain Of light as we 81" " y"
81 - evening. was playing from The curve nioi'
- on its northern limb than on its sou'No'"'
sovs Immediately in front OF tne hU.'u'
n,y,icn,arly brilliant little TO the sou'u u ,A'
~. tho front: round them was DARK space que
-, uorlors 70 the more brilliant hight OF the rays
IN to,0,d and nearer TO the sun was more iu-
Lone which gradually faded INTO the geher-
s;.,oA l;'bt Of the head Of the comet Mr. huth-
!1la1 b., inst returned from the country and TINS
~ -, otservation Of the comet. Hence he had
ss,n which to compute its elements. Professor
- tnusver. il is to be presumed, he's progressed
-. k,in lis computations, as he announces, evil
S.o with assurance of certainty that is not tie ex
,,ed comet Of 1864 and 1866, any whose return has
An srpected. 1t will continue TO decrease IN brli-
E.ncv say by day. until il will finally disappear, and
,obsbv half Of us who are now alive viii never see 1t
Agsin
title ia known of the constituent elements of comets.
The solid portion of the nucleus Is very SMALL if indeed
tere ia any sohd portion at all measured by the NIL
ometer. the nucleus Of the great comet Of Donati Of
MS Was but 800 miles in diameter, and the largest
LAhero observed that OF 1911, was but 1857 mes IN
diameter Certain ii is, that no comet has yet been
found to exercise any percephble force on any even
lie smallest bodies of the solar system; Lexels COM
ct passed through the midst of Jupers satellites with
cut causing the slightest perturbation In Their mouoh
the comet OF I790 passed 30 near the earth that II us
mass had been eqoal to that Of the earth 1t Wonld nave
Iengtbened year by hours and 2S minutes. Ii did
not lengthen ii a single second; the mass oil the comet
therefore must have been less than the loVOOth part OF
that of the earth. The tails OF comets have been the
biect of much speculation; hitherto II has been sup
eed that they were portion Of the gaseous envelope
o the comet thrown back by some rePellng force oil
The sun; but this theory is not supported by the phe
uomena for some comets have bad two or more tails
Gyergng from each other much in some instances as
800. In The tail of the present comet there IS mass
o. dfused light sweeping far to the south OF the tai
proper, as described by Professor Bond Whsteyerh the
ssil of the come,may be- it Is almost Infinitely attenu-
sted stars of the 10th and 18th magnitude have been
seen through fifty thousand miles thickness OF comets
bail Some of these tails are of enormous length; that
Of the cometof lS4S measured $50, 100000 ofmies.
Strong arguments have been adduced for the belief
ai comets are entirely gaseous, the nuclei OF some
have been resolved by the largest telescopes but opn-
ions are now incnng to the theory that the nuclei OF
some are solid and that Of Dona is even asserted to
have density equal to that of cast iron. This density
Of course varies exceedingly according to their prox
mity TO the sun: the comet Of 1913 approached within
half million of mi of the sun, s1becting 1t to de-
gree Of heat 3O0Otes that Of molten iron, or nearly
10, 900 000o Fahrenheit. Such comet travelling in
few days from this elevated degree of temperature into
e realms of space where the temperature is at least
30 Fahrenheit below zero has been chosen by some
speculative theologans the probable residence of the
damned. The number of the comets is quite sufficient
for this theory; Arsgo estimates that there are not iees
than 900 600 Of them pursuing their courses around
our sum- TO say nothing of those Of other solar systems
The elements and the periods of bat few have been
computed and some of the computed periods are so
long that we may doubt whether civilization will
last long enough 10 preserve our present asronomc
records until they can be verified The date of reap-
pearancs of Donat's comet has been fixed at A. ID.
3999 the comet of 1911 m announced to reappear after
absence of 600 years and the period Of the comet
ofl6S0 has been fixed at anywhere from 800 years 70
ernity. All comets which return must move in clip
ses bu the paths Of some far they have been OBJ
served seem be ratherparsboas hyperboss which
would lead them off into endless space 1t ia hard to
conceive n ordered system like this, of such bodies
wandering from system TO system, the wilotbe-wisps
of the universe. The power Of gravatlOn Of the sun,
however, follows them very far it is estimated 70
tend 70 100 900 O0O times the distance Of the earth from
the sum- or to distance Of $500 900 600 900 900 miles
Comets are very much Influenced in their orbits by the
attraction of the planets; Haleys comet, the period Of
which is about 76 years. during revolution af
fced by the attraction Of Jupiter and Saturn to the
tent of nearly two years The period of Enekes COM
e. l2l0 days, has been gradually diminishing that
d is now nearly two days shorter than twas hundred
years ago. Biea's comet, another Of the comets whose
orbits have been reduced to almost planetary certainty,
t as at one time feared would into inconvenent
proximity with the earth. However, our globe was
saved by the trfing distance Of SO GOO 900 miles,
the comet crossing our orbit On the 29th of October
md we reaching that point in it the Both Of Noyem
Der. The danger of the world going to pieces from
onet-stroke s considered improbable in the ratio
Of many millions to one, and it is doubted by many as
sronomers whether we should know it if q comet were
% strike tie earth.
Since the earliest historic records comets have play
I'd an important part in the worlds history. The sud-
den appearance Of such strange and wonderful visitor
bearing behind it stream Of light, sometimes in the
orentOus form of cimetar has spread universal ter
sOr and dsmsy, and has often produced the disasters
which it was subsequently supposed to have presag
ed So long ago b. c. 81, comet of great splen-
DOR mentioned by Diodorus Scuus and by Aristotle,