Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-02-21
A Comet With a Mission of Death.

IN
The Probability of a COnt1a grafton in the
SUN That May Burn All Life Off the
Earth.
from Richard A. Proctor's Familiar Science Studies.
The idea that the comet of 1880 may be
identical, not only with that of 1S43, but
with that of 1868, the period having been
reduced from 175 years to thirty seven, was
suggested at the Astronomical society in
April 1880, by Mr.. Marth, a mathematician
of great skill, and we'll known for the zeal
with which he attacks problems relating to
the movements of the satellites of Saturn
and Mars. He says:
Surprising the comet of 1913 is the same
as that of 1868, it would not be very won
derful that it should reappear after thirty
seven years instead of IT'S years. The ve1oc-
ity of a body moving in the solar system de-
ponds simply on its distance from the sun
and on the period of revolution. If the We
locity is reduced by resisting medium there
will be reduction of the period, and there
is nothing whatever unreasonable IN the
supposition 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 this comet of 1880 is the same as the
comet of 1S43 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 near
" 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 near
est to the sun that its period undergoes
marked diminution, the effect must be of ne
cessity increased at each return, and after
only few, possibly one or two, circuits, the
comet will be absorbed by the sun.
It will be remembered that Sir Isaac New
ton recognized the possibility that it might
happen to comet, having such an orbit as
that of the comet of 1850 Generally known
as Newton's comet) and that he had consid-
cred the consequences might be full of dan
ger to this earth. Yet he only dwelt on the
danger arising, as he judged, from the addi-
ton of so much fuel to the solar fires. We
know now that the real danger lies, not from
the absorption of so much matter may ex-
list in comets head and nucleus, but from
the conversion of the momentum of the
swiftly-rushing mass of the comet into heat,
the thermal equivalent of its mechanical en-
ergy.
have for my own part been long of opln-
ion 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 mo-
| ton of some large comet, followed by me-
| teoric train about these two stars. I have
! indicated fully in my pheasant Ways in Sci
epce,' the reasons which induce me to be-
| lieve that the outburst of the so-called "new
starr in the Northern Crown in 1866 is to be
| similarly explained. Without saying that I
consider there is absolute danger of similar
| outburst in the case of our own sun when the
comet of 1843 shall be absorbed by him "a
| result which will, in my opinion, most GER
! tainly take place., I will go so far as to ex-
press my belief that if ever the day is to
| come when 1.-THE heavens shall dissolve in
| fervent heat" the cause of the catastrophe
| will be the downfall of some great comet on
| the sun.
| believe the passage even of the head of a
comet over the earth would do little harm,
| for the simple reason that the velocity with
which the meteoric masses forming the head
| would travel at the sarths distance from the
sun would be too small to lead to any very
mischievous result If the shower of mete
| ORIG masses were very dense, the meteors
themselves being of the larger sort, and sc
able to break their way through the earth's
atmosphere, the shower might kill few Of
the earth's inhabitants, Or even many hun
| dreds. But there would be no widespread
destruction of life.
1t would be altogether otherwise, l be
lieve, if comet of the larger sort fell into
or were absorbed by the sun. The DANCE,
l
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
| momentum on the suns fiery surface. Pos
sibly Gin my opinion probably their most
destructive work would be accomplished be-
| low that surface, under the still more stu
pendous attractive energy of that smaller be-
| cause more condensed orb within which
| take to be the true ruling center of the solar
| system
| It might we'll be that the effects thus pro-
| duced would be but transient. In a few
weeks, possibly in O few days, or even hours,
| the sun, excited for a while to intense heat
and splendor, would resume his usual tenn.
psrature, his usual lustre. Such, indeed
was the nature of the change which affected
| the so-called s'Ilew starr in the Northern
/ Crown. For day or two it shone ont with
| several hundred times its usual lustre, and
doubtless it poured forth during those three
days several hundred times it's usual heat
| Then gradually its fires cooled, its lustre di
minished, and after few weeks had passed
| it shone as it had shone before for hundreds
! of years, with the lustre of ninth magni
tude star only. But it is certain that, il
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 those orbs, the abnormal
| light and heat during the outburst in 1866
| must have destroyed all living creatures from
the face of each one of those worlds.
1t is equally certain that if at any time 9
| great comet, falling directly upon the sun,
should, by the swift rush of its meteorie
components, excite the frame of the sun tc
lustre far exceeding that with which he al
present shines, the sudden access of lustre
and heat would prove destructive to every
living creature, or at any rate to all the
higher forms of life upon this earth. And
though in a few days the sun might resume
his ordinary lustre and no longer glow with
abnormal heat, he would psur his rays on 8
family of worlds in which not one of the
higher forms either of vegetable or animal
| life would remain in existence.