The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-07-17
The Comet

The Comet.
The comet is only 46 million miles
from the earth, and it travels at the
rate of 80 miles q second. Psssen-
gers may calculate from this the time
to begin packing their trunks. 1t
passes its perihelion July 10. 1t
has developed two tails, or else has
split its tail against some of the
banisters up there. The Chicago
TYt6Wne's philosopher (E. Colbert)
says:
The spectroscope has recently led
astronomers to infer that even the
head of the comet is only volume
of glowing gas. But there is no war
rant for the favorite idea of some as
tronomers that the weight of q COM
ct might be carried in ones vest
pocket. A globe of hydrogen gas,
which is the lightest gas known to
us (if we except the hypothetical
Abaron) if equal in bulk to the
earth and of the same density as that
at which the gas is measured at the
earth's surface, would contain one
part in $4,000 of the quantity of
matter contained in the earth. Now,
we can scarcely conceive it as possi-
BILE that a density 100 times less
than that of hydrogen gas at the
earth's surface would permit the re-
fiection of the sunlight to our eyes
from distance Of 50,000,000 miles.
Yet, even this stretch of the imagi-
nary toward the limits of tangible
tenuity would give, for a globe of
the size Of Coggia's comet, a mass
which would weigh not less than
100000, ,000,000000 tons, if it
could be brought down to the earth's
surface. This compares with the
mass of the moon, as l to 1900;
with the earth, as l to 100000; and
with the sun as to 134, 700, 900, 900.
1t is not improbable, however, that
the mass of the comet is much
greater than this quantity, so that
it would compare fave-ably with the
largest of the planetoids revolving be-
tween the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
That largest planetoid is exceeded
$50 times in volume by the moon;
and if its density should be the same
as that of the moon, then its mass
would be equal to that of the comet,
if the latter had an average density
l6 times less than that of hydrogen
at the earth's surface.
A VISITOR FROM OTHER SYSTEMS.
1t if easily demonstrated that a
comet moving in a parabolic orbit
with the sun at its focus, could on
ly do so, in sole obedience to the at
traction of the sun, after having fall
en- toward him from an infinite dis
tance. But that would require an
infinite time, which is the same thing
as saying that it could never happen.
Hence, this and other comets which
describe the parabolic curve, can
only DO so because they are moving
in obedience to some other force in
addition to that exerted upon them
by the sun. In other words, the
parabolic comet has been whirling
around some other star than our sun
before it enters the solar domain;
and a necessary corollary to this
statement is the following: that ''the !
comet which describes a parabola |
within the solar system leaves us to
twist around some other star" The
parabolic comet is thus visiting |
member of the whole confraternity |
of stars without belonging to any |
one more than to the rest. It is a
genuine 'Wandering Jew," that finds
no abiding course among all the
communities visited, and can only
lose its NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. char
acter by fortuitous approach to
some planetary attendant Of visit
ed sun, which either settles it down
into a stapid elliptic orbit, sends it
off in still more eccentric path, or
ends at once its eecentricities and
its individuality by precipitating it
upon some other body which may
itself be terribly cOnvulsed by the
shock.
CoMETARY FUTURITY.
Yet,there is no otherWay in which
this terrible Ishmaelite loneliness
may be brought to an end; and we
cannot better end our remarks on
this almost exhaustless topic than
by glance at the necessary imper-
manence of the cometary phase of
existence. While swinging round a
star, for several days or weeks, near
the time of the peri-astral passage.
the comet throws out a tail; often
at the rate of many hundred thous-
and miles per hour. Now, we can
not suppose that the tail is abso-
lutely imponderable, though it
consists of very highly rarifed
matter; nor can We suppose that tile
comet gathers again to itself the
matter thus lavishly thrown off
every time that the head rises to a
state of cheated dissipation" We
are forced to the conclusion that
Independently of collisions" with
planets, in which the comet loses a
part of its substance, it throws off
portion of its substance at every
perihelion passage, whether about
our sun or some other star, and new
or RECEIVERS it. The matter that is
thrown off into the tails is left be-
hind, and is dissipated in space.
Hence, those comets which have |
(eliptic) orbit lose mat