The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-12-20
A TALK ABoul coMETs.
interesting Facts Concernina the ceirstini
Wanderers.


Tie comet of June, 1882, has been the
subject of conversation at many hundreds Of
dinner tables and of more public curiosity
than such objects, when not so brilliant as
to force themselves ON public attention, have
hitherto received. A great comet visible to
all the world is one of the most striking and
startling of celestial apparitions; a new star
is in reality much rarer and much more
surprising object But those who can recog-
nize new star outside tho narrow circle of
practical astronomers are few indeed
Moreover, as new stars are but rarely of the
first magnitude and appear at intervals OF
centuries, no superstition, even in the -four
ishing days of astrology, has ever attached
to them. That a sun once invisible or bare
ly visible to terrestrial yes should suddenly
become striking astronomical object is the
most strange and amazing of all scientific
facts to those few who understand its mean
ing. The stars, of course, are suns, and in
all probability each of them has its own cir
Gle of planets. For all we know each of
them may have dependent upon it worlds
peopled by creatures equal to or even SUI
perior to men, creatures whose fate, if we
could understand or know it, would excite
our keenest sympathies Now the change
implied by the appearance of so-called
new star to the worlds dependent upon it,
and to all their inhabitants, must be in the
last degree terrible II is as IL our sun had
suddenly to blaze out ten or hundred times
as large, as bright and as hot as now. It is
scarcely necessary to say that such an occur.
ence would neither be remembered nor re-
corded, for no life organized under the ex-
isting conditions of life in any one of the
planets OF which the amount of solar light
and heat is the most important element
could survive such change for twenty-four
hours Even supposing that the increase OF
heat and light 10 much more gradual than it
seems to telescope observers on such occe-
sions an addition even of one-fourth to tina
bly, destroy all the higher forms of animate
nature. The total heat received from the
sun must not, of course, be measured by the
nominal scale of the thermometer. Zero
represents an amount of warmth practically
derived in its entirety from the sun COM
purea WITH Which the. difference between
zero and tropical sun heat is trivial 1t is
supposed that if the heat of the sun were
absolutely withdrawn the temperature of our
atmosphere would fall to more than 200 de-
grees below zero Fahrenheit, a 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 in the proportion OF four to three,
would produce a temperature of which no
earthly life has had any experience. It
would raise summer temperature of 60 de-
grees Fahrenheit to at least 100 degrees
Fahrenheit. Were the SUMS heat doubled
tomorrow we should be exposed to tenn
perature Of over 800 degrees that is to say,
heat sufficient to melt lead, and to convert
all the waters on tho earth's surface into
steam. The revolution implied by the APP
pearance Of n new or the sudden brilliancy
of faint star is infinitely greater than this,
and means nothing else than the total de.
struction of life on all the dependent worlds.
Yet awful as are such catastrophes, they
hardly impress the imagination even of as
tronomers and are regarded by the publk
With utter Indifference. - London Post.