The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-08-11
What are Comets :?

| What are Comets?
| To the Editor of the Commercial. V
Now that the beautiful visitor in our north
ern heaven prompts us to inquire into thu
| nature and origin OF comets, allow me, through
the columns ofyour valuable paper, to publish
an hypothesis which offers simple anu com
mon-se solution. First of all we must lay
aside the superstitious ideas OF the ignorant
and the dreamy vagaries of scientific special
lists, and regard comets as essential and indis
pensable factors in our 'Solar System" -.r
To begin with facts well known to all oul
readers, space around us is literally filled with
small bodies. varying in weight from few
ounces go several tons, which move with great
velocity in eccentric orbits around the sun
| Our earth encounters them in all parts Of her
immense orbit. They are ordinarily invisi-
| BILE, but when they enter our atmosphere the
| friction occasioned by their rapid motion heats
| them to such degree that they emit streak
! of light and can be seen Of nights. The
| smaller sizes thus passing through our atmos-
phere are commonly called shooting stars"
and are fused, oxygenlzed and completely dis
| sipated into fine dust This dust eventual
| ~ settles to the surface Of the earth, and has
been found in the form of microscopic glo-
bules and crystals of iron in the snow on the
SUBMITS of the Alps. When these bodies are
large, they are only partially consumed while
passing through our atmosphere, and often
penetrate to the earth, which they strike with
great force. These larger bodies are usually
called ''meteors" and "8rolites" Many "ero-
lites" are preserved in our museums, and are
sometimes composed of pure iron, magnetic
iron, &c. The writer had the rare fortune
one night in the spring of 1875, while visiting
in Montgomery county, Mo, to see the fall Of
a large 8rolite, which suddenly shOne out like
tha pncn6au anH CoinDti1lota6 II, oil tla
colors OF the rainbow. Several minutes after
complete darkness had again covered the sur
rounding landscape there was a long rumb-
ling sound, accompanied by trembling of the
ground, caused by the tremendous conclusion
Of the meteor striking the earth.
These meteoTic bodies are SO numerous, that
our earth encounters millions of them every
day and they are slowly but constantly adding
to the size of our globe. Bearing this in mind
let us turn away from the solar system, and
endeayor to conceive the Unreasonable dis
tances between us and the fixed stars" dis
tances so immense that our entire planetary
system seems mere speck. For our purpose,
however, we will halt long before we reach
fixed star" and regard the regions of space
where the attractive force of our sun becomes
inappreciabe Here we also find myriads of
meteric bodies, and perhaps small bodies of
cosmical and gaseous matter drifting in space.
The universal law of gravitatiOn applies here
as well as it does in our system. We will now
follow the fortunes of large meteoric body,
say of iron, which is drifting toward our
sun, and which, in the course ofcountless ages,
is destined to reach part OF space governed
by the attractive force of our SUM- This large
meteoric body attracts all the smaller bodies
within its range. Many of these bodies hav-
ing little or no motion OF their own, are drawn
to and fall upon our large meteoric body,
slowly adding to its size and increasing its
heat. AS this process goes on, we find that
the heavier substances settle on the body of
our erolite, and that the lighter substances,
gases, &C., are forced upward For conve
nience sake, we will now call the body the
nucleus" and the lighter substances sur
rounding it, the envelope" A large number
of these small bodies encountered by our 'nu-
cleus" have sufficient motion OF their own to
prevent them from falling on the nucleus, but
they are nevertheless brought under it's at
tractive power, and forced around it. Many
collisions necessarily take place among these
small bodies, and by neutralzing their mo-
| tons, cause them to fall on our nucleus"
which thereby gains in volume and heat.
After many millions OF years our "nucleus"
has grown to be several hundred miles dame
eter, and of the density of iron, its envelope
has grown to be many thousand miles in d-
ameter, and the small meteoric bodies reyolv-
ing around it extend out many miles in diam
ter, and their number is beyond computation.
In addition to this, we assume from analogy
that it has acquired rapid rotary motion
which has caused Its envelope to bulge out at
it's equator. a1 ll.ai.. tfl.3 .l. s..
We now approach new phrase in the his
tory OF our companion ; it has reached the do
minion of our suns attractive force and has
begun to fall down towards the sun with ever
increasing velocity. We will now call it a
comet" Happily our comet has sufficient
motion OF its own to save it from being drawn
directly into the sun and destroyed. AS it
approaches nearer and nearer the sun, it en-
counters many of the countless swarms of me-
teoric bodies which revolve around the sun,
and it is often subjected to thick rains of
shooting stars" which serve to increase its
size and heat AS it passes the large. planets
on its downward course to the sun, it is ma
terally swerved from its original direction
and more firmly entangled in the meshes of
the suns attraction. The nearer it approaches
the sun the fiercer becomes the bombardment
OF meteors to which it is subjected. When it
finally reaches its ''perihelion," or nearest
proximity to the sun, its velocity is almost be-
yend comprehension, and it sweeps around
the sun in an incredibly short space of time
The inhabitants of the earth now see a beauti-
full comet, which rapidly changes its position
in the heavens: what they see, however, is
only part of our comet-that is, they only
see the nucleus" or disk the surrounding ZEN
velope," or atmosphere. and the "tail or pow
erful Illuminated track proceeding from the
side of the comet opposite the sun, and pass
ing through the invisible swarm OF meteors
revolving about the comet. The theory that
this tail is substance 'whisks" around the
comet at periheion like the outside horse Oft
flying dutchman" many millions miles dis
tant from the central part. or axis, is untena-
BILE. The tail could not acquire such excessive
centrifugal force without being completely
swept away from the body of our comet, its
attractive power being much too feeble to hold
such risky tail The tail, as such, does not
exist in reality, it is only the effect of the suns
light gathered by the gaseous envelope of the
comet and cast in highly concentrated rays
through the comets attendant meteors; the
meteors in the path of these powerful rays of
light are highly illuminated and become v1si-
BILE, Just as beam of sunlight cast into dark
room Eliminates the small particles of dust
floating in the air and renders them visible,
although ordinarily the dust is invisible. In
accordance with laws OF optics, the tail grows
fainter as we recede from the body ofthe COM
ct until it gradually fades away; it readily
moves around SO as to point away from the
sun it changes its shape accordingly as it
points towards or from us, or at right angles
to our line of vision. Thus we see comets
having tails modified in shape from the long
straight tail to all the intermediate forms un-
til no tail is visible If the nucleus of comet
is of sufficient size and density to cast an ap-
preciable shadow, the tail would in certain po-
stions be divided. As the tail is an illumina-
ted path through otherwise invisibles meteors,
it is transparent that is, it does not hide more
distant stars.
Our comet has now become member of our
solar system, and has brought us from "out-
ward space" new materials and new. Instead