The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1874-07-12
The Comet is Coming.
ITS TAIL WILL REACH Us BEFORE THE END
OF JULY.

49, ~. W ApENs IL Is approaching Tn
J, sum and earth very rapidly, and before tn
a end OF this month, as we are informed b,
Professor Parkhurst of New York, it's tai
y Will reach the orbit Of the earth. It viii
!, sweep over the moon, adding to the lum
fnos,tyIo mos, OF that satellite, and disappearing
the gaze OF the denizens of South Americ,
with an anroral brilliancy impossible tt
describe. The comet will be at perigee, il,
nearest approach to the earth, about the
mig n.gnT OF July 70, the evening upon which
our Democratic and Conservative Conyen
!, ton Will nominate at Montgomery a can
! didate for Governor who is to lead the
whites to victory.
These comets are remarkable ipstitu
tlons. They move In vast orbits and seem
of their enormous tails, Their returns Are
predicted accurately by astronomer. Dr..
HALEY came to the conclusion that the
comets OF l457, 1881, 1907, and 1852 were
reappearsnces of one and che same comet.
He predicted that it's reappearance wonII
be in the year 1757 or 1858, and it's actnai
resppearance in the beginning of 1850 es-.
tablished the fact that they were regular
and permaueDs bodies obeying the general
laws of matter. HALEY could not expect
20 see MS prediction fulfilled; and, although
he lived to the age of eighty -four, he died
sixteen years before the comet returnsd.
| As the time of it's EXPECTED return approach-
ed the mathenaticians Clairut, d'Aiembert
and Euler began to compute the retardine
inhoenees OF the planets Saturn and Jupis
ter. Ciairnt was the most successful. ]
showing that Saturn would delay the re.
turn of the comet between three and four
months, and Jupiter about seyenteen
months, SO that the comet would not come
to it's perihelion till April I3, 1859. A re-
vision OF his computation made the date |
april The comet actually reached its |
perihelion on March 13. This is Considered |
one ofthe most brilliant triump phs in the his
tory OF astronomy. Haiiey's comet returned
again in 1885, the fifth authenticated re-
turn within one day of the time calculated
oy Pontecoutant and Rosenberger, another
most astonishing approximation to- astrono.
micai truth. Besides the comet of 1859. of
watch there have been five authenticated re-
turHs, there are several others, of which
something like return may be traced at
isng intervals. One of these passed its peri
helion at about 8 o'clock on the morning of
the 9th Of July, 1894, and again at q little
past D O'Clock, on the evening of the 2Ist
Of April, 1556--a period of about 292 years.
Another appeared in 1852 and again In
lo6l-a period of about 129 years. The
return OF that comet should have been in
1870. In that year three comets made their {
appearance, but neither of them resembled {
the one of 1861. While periods of most !
OF the comets examined are comparatively '
short, those of others have been ascertained
to extend many thousand years. The r
great comet of 1911 remained visible for r
upwards of two months, and was consider 3
ed one of the most brilliant of modern h
times. After careful Investigation M. n
Argelander, noted French astronomer. o
years. r
From the New York Herald we give the v
following interesting extract: q
Inc nature OF comets, especially of the
tail, is matter of great uncertainty. The b
oucleus obeys the laws of gravity, unin- a
duenced by the motions of the tail. TIE q
of the tail first moves towards the c
sun, and is then repelled from it. The evil Il
lent polarity leads to the natural conjec-
ure that the tail is electricity ITSELF Bessel t.
ng each particle to move forward by in a
rita, and by repuisive force from the Q!
1n lnveiseiy proportioned to the square u
" the distance. Tne curve thus computed e
'grees well with the observed form Of sew it
raj noted comets tails. Professor Pierce. tt
# Harvard University, was led by the
omet Of 1858 to the same calculations and D.
esults, and published them before he was {,
ware that lie had been anticipated by II
3essel. ~
The soPerstitio1s fears of primitive ages Of
ave in this century been replaced by the vi
Infounded fear of the earth's collision with gl
comet This was notably the case iu in
s32, when it was predicted that the comet of
Shat year would cross the earta's track, of
NO great fears were entertained of colli-
oll;o;o- 40 NJ SNAoouSe thaC sUch 10
olnslon ever occurred, either with the ch
arth or any other planet. The motion of TO
ne earth in it's orbit is more than / SOC, 900
illes day, and as Clairut, with all his
are, did not come nearer the truth-re-1 Mi
larkable as his calculations were-than age
days In regard to the return of Halley's hie
omet, and HE followers, with all the ad- ah
ltlonal light they possessed, did not come pla
carer than days of its reappearance at Sin
le point pearest the sun on its last return wo
1885, and as thi comet will not return bes
gain till the earth in it's rapid course fac
round the sun be within nine days far coll
aough removed from the influence of the doe
'met to be out of the way of all harm, no are
Immediate danger of collision with the cle'
'lestal velocipede need be apprehended. job
age
saw
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