The Placer herald. [volume] (Auburn, Placer County, Calif.) 1855-1991, 1861-09-21
ROMANCE OF A COMET.

ROMANCE OF A COMET.
EUROPEAN ASTRONOMERS QUARRELLING- srEC
ULATIoNS ABoTT COMETS.
There is quarrel among European astron
omers about the identity of the comet
which lately surprised star. gazers on both
sides of the Atlantic. Some, as for exam
pie, NJ. Babinet-beieves that it is the same
which in 1864 looked down upon thu amaz
ed English barons during their efforts to Sc
cure parliamentary rights under the ausp
ces of Simon de Montfort, in the reign of
Henry III and which took its second glance
at us in Mary Tudor's reign, two years before
the accenson of Elizabeth, when it acceler
ated Charles VS. ntention of abdcating in
favor of his still more fanatical son. Mr..
Hind, however, who had computed this
comets return for 1858, when nothing
was seen Of it, vehemently denies that
this is the belated meteor in question;
and NJ. Leverrier is OF the same mind. NJ.
| BONNIE, Il geometer of the Netherlands,
predirted some time ago, that the Charles
V. comet, A. it is called, would be delayed
by planetary interference till 1900, and Hal
lev had anticipated its return in the same
year. Thus, says the Lon Ion Spectator;
Even the astronomers are still permitted
the refreshing emotions of excitement and sur
prise. There is one field of unlimited posi-
biity open to them, in which their spccuIa.
,ons are as purely imaginative rs The
events of NJ Alexandra Dumas novels
Comets are still left to utter brilliant pro.
test against routine in The very field in which
it is sometime said the routine is absolute,
Splendid comets, that no astronomer expect
ed, are discovered suddenly 10y casual ladies
as they retire to rest. Others which are
expected, and whose return has been conf
centIy predicted, entirely fail to keep their
appointment. And concerning one comet
again Iexel's carefully observed, and whose
orbit was closely computed it remains an
entirely open question whether it has been
wholly absorbed and appropriated by the
planet Jupiter, or has gone off into infinite
space never to return, or whether we are
still a, intervals beholling it without recog
nizng its identity.
"1hese erra,ic bodies with their enormous
tails, sweeping distance Of from five mil
lion to two hundred million miles, constitute
the dream land of astronomers, and It is
very pleasant to turn to the chapters in
which these usually rigid rcnsoners throw
the reins upon the neck of speculation, and
career away into the boundIess field of ex
travagant hypothesis. In the first place,
there is a delightful difficulty about a new
comet. There are always three courses
open to il, as to statesman, before lis starts
on its career, and a good many modiiica,
lions afterwarl. 1t may be merely a plane.
tary body. revolving in thin eclipses. and as
regular in its movements rs the earth or
Jupiter itself Such is Haeys celebrated
seventy year comet. Or it may he moving
in paraboc or lyperboic orbit, in neither
of which cases can it ever return again to
the same place. but must forever explore
new field of space. But the difficulty lies
here, that it is an extremely delicate matter
to distinguish accurately, from single set
of observations, between comet moving
in an absolutely infinite curve: so that il is
even yet doubted whether there are any,
strictly speaking, OF the latter kind"
AMUSING spEcULATIoNs.
But the puzzles to which the nero orbits
Of the comets have given rise, are nothing
compared with the amusing speculations to
which their physo'l const tuition have given
rise. Astronomers have discussed, with the
most opposite re ults, the speculations-
whether comet has ever struck the earth
if it has, whether it has changed the seasons
and altered the IatiLudes Of the different
places on our globe; whether passing
through the tail of comet would be pre-
+ judicial TO us, and in what way: whether il
would be possible for new comet to carry
off the earth with it rs a satellite; and wheth
er such an effect would be fatal to human
arrangements or not. All these questions
open up delightful field of specu lation,
and not an entirely impractical one.
ut is pretty certain that Lexel's comet
went so near to Jupiter in 1910 as either
to be absorbed into his system, or to have
been projected into very new and unant'
cipated path 10y his influence. 1t is salts
factory to find that, as far as we can see the
unpleasant consequences. so far AS there
were any, appear to have been born by the
comet and not by the planet, as it gives us
faint hope that we might come oft with equal
success from such an encounter if it should
ever take place. There would be moral
satisfaction in either absorbing or putting TO
flight a comet which would afford new 'ex-
perience' that even Goethe might envy.
The interest with which we should receive
our astronomers reports of the approach.
the emphasis with which the papers would
circulate the latest intelligence as to the de
tails of crisis which might end in clean
sweep of The globe. can be readily realized.
1t might be, indeed, that the astronomers
would be altogether unable to report pro
eress, for the theory has been advanced by
-; .xo, ,l,ot Tho universsl foos of l7R3