The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-07-01
THE COMET.

ike ali comets visible from the earth
approaching the sun. or coming
within the solar system from the
outward realms of space, and must
therefore increase in apparent size
within few days or weeks and pre-
sent more interesting study for
astronomers. Comets are of two
classes: those visible to the naked
eye, and those smaller or more re-
mote ones that can only be seen by
the telescope. The greater ones are
composed of three parts: the
nucleus, the comma and the tail.
From comma, the Latin for hair.
comes the name comet. 1t is the
mass OF bright cloud surrounding
the nucleus or eye of the comet. The
TALL is an apparent elongation of the
comma. The nucleus of NeWton's
comet of 1850 had the form of star.
with a dark-blue central eye. That
OF 1885 (Halley's), which is believed
to traverse its circle and to return
every seVenty-six and half years.
had a central eye, with a bright
crescent on either side of it, the
whole nucleus presenting something
like the shape of serpent's head.
The tails of some comets appear
straight, of others curved; some
seem to have several tails, and some
are without apparent tails. In their
approach towards the sun the tail is,
as all proper tails should be, behind !;
but on rounding the sun they are
always reversed, the tail being in
front.
1t was the opinion of the eminent
astronomer Kepler that the celestial
space is as full of comets as the sea
OF fish, and that an enthusiastically
small part of them ever come in
range of the telescope. Yet it is a
fact that over 500 comets have been
seen from this earth with the naked
eye since the beginning of the
Christian era, and about 200 others
by telescope. 1t is a theory among
astronomers that the planet Jupiter
exercises a power of repulsion over
comets that get within the orbits of
his satellites fatal to their reappear-
ance. LeXelPs comet, last seen in
ITO, was one of these unfortunate
erratics. Coming too close to Ju-
piter, it was seized by his repelling
power, turned out Of the solar syS-
tenn into illimitable space, and has
never been seen since, though it's
former appearance had been every
five and half years. Of course,
there will be many and different
cOnjectureS as to the identity Of the
celestial stranger now paying us a
visit. 1t is not Biela's, for that has
been lost. 1t is not Newton's, for
that returns only once in SIS years
to the sight of the earth. 1t is not
Halley's, for that appears but once
in seventy-sK years paid its last re-
SpectS to us in November, 1885, and
is not again due until 1911. 1t is
not DOnati's, (the great comet of
1858, visible here for two mOnthS),
for that has an orbit which it re-
quireS 1850 years to complete, and
will not be seen again till the year
3S0S, or thereaboutS.
In 1913, in the month of February,
a great comet, an entire stranger to
the astronomers, like the one now
visible, suddenly burst into view
near the sun. 1t was plainly visible
in broad daylight. 1t was seen for
two months, and Professor New
comb, of the United States Naval
Observatory, mentions of it that sit
passed nearer the sun than dny other
known body-sO near it, in fact, that
with very slight change in the
direction of its original motion it
would have struck the SUM-" Its
orbit has been calculated at $50
years. So that cannot be our stran-
ger now in sight. Nor can it be
Encke's, for this is much larger than
Encke'S. In short, it would seem to
be a comet whereof there is no
record. Probably one of the innu-
merables mentioned by Kepler as
keeping their lines of march in outer
space, but turned aside from its old
orbit by some such comet repeller
as Jupiter.
Whatever it is, astronomy has
now reached a point so reliable in
it's calculations of the motions Of all
celestial bodies, comets included,
that we may be sure its orbit will
be calculated and the time Of it's re-
turn predicted within year or TWO
at farthest. On the average we
should be visited by one of these
celestial erratics every three and
three-quarter years, or every 1870
days. That is, to a comet visible
without the aid of a telescope. Of
this quality of comets 5O2 have been
recorded either in history or astrOn-
omy, or both, from the year 1 to the
year 1875 of the Christian era. The
century which produced most COM
cts was the third-201 to 300-after
Christ, when fOrty-four were seem
a comet every $50 days. This was
the century in which Constantine
organized the Christian church
and made il the religion Of the
Roman empire. The average
for the first 1900 years after Christ
was tWenty-seven comets a century.
Up to 1915 this century has seen but
sixteen comets not of the telescope
order. We are therefore entitled to
eleven more before the year 1901, to
equal the average. In the century
ending with 500 there. were but six
teen recorded, but as that was a