Huntsville gazette., 1882-03-11
A Deadly Comet.

Ihe lQea That the comet OF looU may
be identical, not only with that of 1913,
but with that of 1868, the period having
been reduced from IT'S years to 81, was
suggested at the Astronomical Society IN
April. 1880, by Mr.. Martin, a mathema-
tician of great skill, and well known for
the zeal with which he attacks problems
relating to the movements of the satel-
Gtes of Saturn and Mars. He says:
s'Supposing the comet of 1848 is the
same as that of 1868, it would not be
Tery wonderful that it should reappear
after 81 years, instead of 175 years. The
yelocity of a body moving in the solar
system depends simply on its distance
from the sun, and on the period OF revo-
luton. If the velocity is reduced by a
resisting medium, there will be reduc-
ton of the period, and there is nothing
whatever unreasonable in the suppose
ton that, however weak the corona may
be, its resistance would have a very
great effect upon the motion of the
comet which rushes through it; so that
I should not be at all surprised If it
should turn out that the comet of 1880
is the same as the comet OF 1873 and
that of 1868, and that its revolution has
been so much affected that possibly it
may return in, say, seventeen years.
Now, if this theory of the comet OF 1880
be the true one, we are somewhat more
nearly interested in the matter than we
are in most theories respecting comets.
If, already, the comet experiences such
resistance in passing through the corona
when at its nearest to the sun that its
period undergoes marked diminution,
the effect must of necessity be increased
at each return, and after only few,
possibly one or two, circuits, the comet
will be absorbed by the sun.
1t will be remembered that Sir Isaac
Newton recognized the possibility that
it might happen to comet, having such
an orbit as that of the comet of 1880
generally known as Newton's comet,
and that he had considered the conse-
quences might be full of danger to this
earth Yet he only dwelt on the danger
arising, as he judged, from the addition
of so much fuel to the solar fires. We
know now that the real danger lies, not
from the absorption of so much matter
as may exist in a comets head and nu-
cleus, but from the conversion of the
momentum of the swiftly rushing mass
of the comet into heat, the thermal
equivalent of its mechanical energy.
| have for my own part been long of
opinion that the periodical increase of
such stars as Mira (the Wonderful starr
in the whale, and Eta, of the ship Argo,
is due to the motion of some large COM
ct, followed by meteoric train about
these stars. have indicated fully in
my pheasant Ways in Science" the
reasons which induce me to believe that
the Outburst of the so-called "new star"
in the Northern Crown in 1866 is to be
similarly explained. Without saying
that consider there is absolute danger
of similar outburst in the case of our
own sun when the comet of 1S43 shall
be absorbed by him (aresult which will,
in my opinion, most certainly take
place., will 60 so far as to express my
belief that if ever the day is to come
when ''the heavens shall dissolve in fer
vent heat" the cause of the catastro-
phe will be the downfall of some great
comet on the sun.
| believe the passage even of the
head of comet over the earth would
do little harm, for the simple reason
that the velocity with which the mete-
oric masses forming the head would
travel at the earth's distance from the
sun would be too small to lead to any
very mischievOus result. If the shower
of meteOric masses were very dense,
the meteorS themselves being of the
larger sort, and so able to break their
way through the earth's atmosphere,
the shower might kill few of the earth's
bah aptr hr1p
But there would be no widespread de-
struction of life.
1t would be altogether otherwise, l
believe, if a comet of the larger sort fell
into or were absorbed by the sun. The
danger would be in the SUMS own
weight, not in the comet or its attendant
train. The bodies forming the head.
nucleus and train of the comet would
fall in immense numbers, with enormous
velocity, and each with mighty momen-
tum on the suns fiery surface. Possibly
Gin my opinion probably their most
destructive work would be accomplished
below that surface, under the still more
stupendous attractive energy of that
smaller, because more condensed, orb,
within which | take to be the true ruling
center of the solar system.
1t might well be that the effects thus
produced would be but transient. In
few weeks, possibly in few days, or
even hours, the sun, excited for while
to intense heat and splendor, would re-
sumo his usual temperature, his usual
luster. Such, indeed, was the nature
of the change which affected the so
called "new star" in the Northern
Crown. For day or two it shone out
with several hundred times its usual
luster, and doubtless it poured forth
during those few days several hundred
times its usual heat. Then gradually
its fires cooled, its luster diminished,
and after few weeks had passed it
shone, as it had shone before for hun
dreds of years, with the luster of ninth
magnitude star only. But it is certain
that, if there are planets circling around
that remote sun, and if the ordinary
light and heat of that orb sufficed for
the requirements of the inhabitants of
rh <lo ob Al 1.r.b% Loo