Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-11-10
Some Facts About Comets,

The great comet lately visible to all the
world is one Of the most striking and start
ling of ofcelestial apparitions new star is
in reality Il much rarer and Il much more
surprising object. But those who can rec
ognizc n new star outside the circle of prac-
tlcal astronomers are few indeed More
over, rs new stars are but rarely Of the first
magnitude and appearat intervals Of centu-
ries, no superstition, even in the tlourishing
days Of astrology, has cverattachcd to them.
That Il sun once invisible or rarely visible
TO terrestrial eyes should suddenly become
q striking astronomical object is the most
strange and amazing Of all scientific facts to
those few who understand its meaning
The stars, OF course. are suns, and in all
probability each OF them has its own circle
of planets. For all we know each of them
may have dependent upon its worlds peo-
pied by creatures equal to or superior to
them. creatures whose fate, even if we could
underestimate know it. would excite our
kccnest sympathies Now the change i'm
piled by the appearance of Il so-called star
to the worlds dependent npon it, and to all
their inhabitants, must be i'll the last degree
lCiilbic IL ID siS Ill our sun utlu suddenly
TO blaze out ten or IL hundred times as
large, and AZ bright and hot as now
1t is scarcely necessary to say that such an
occurrence would neither be remembered
nor recorded for no life organized under
the existing conditions Of life in any planet
Of which the amount of solar light and
heat is the most important element, could
survive such Il change, for twenty-four hours
Even supposing that the increase of heat
and light is much more gradual than it
seems to telescope observers on such oc-
casions, an addition even of one-fourth to
the total heat emitted by the sun would
probably destroy all the higher forms of
animal nature. The total heat received
from the sun must not, of course, be mea-
slIrcd by the :!ominal craln Of tho thorna
ter Zero represents an amount of warmth
practically derived in its entirety from the
sum- compared with which the difference
between zero and tropical sun heat is tri
vial. 1t is supposed that if the heat Of
the sun were absolutely withdrawn the
temperature of our atmosphere would fall
to moro than 200 degrees below Fahrcn-
hcit, cold which, it is needless TO say,
no life could endure for many hours
Similarly an increase of the total heat received
from the sun, though merely liz the proportion of
four to three, would produce temperature of
which no earthly life has had any experience. 1t
would raise q summer temperature of sixty de-
grccs Fahrenheit to at least ! 30 degrees Fuhrcn-
hcit. Were the suns heat doubled tomorrow we
should be exposed to Il heat of over 800 degrees
that is to say heat sufficient TO melt lead and to
convert Ill the waters on the carth's surface into
steam. The revolution implied by the appearance
ofa new the sudden brillancy of IL faint star is
infinitely greater than this, and means nothing
less than the total destruction Of life on all the
dependent worlds. Yet, awful as are such catas-
trophies. they hardly impress the imagination
even of astronomers, and are now regarded by the
public with r1tcr nditlcrcncc.-LondonI Post.