Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-12-08
COMETS.
The Sun Getting Hotter and Hotter.
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The comet now approaching our
sun, though not yet visible to the
unaided eye, invites brief consider
alton of cometary bodies. Their
number is almost infinite; the
abysses of the universe are crowded
with them. In size they vary from
minute grains up to bodies OF plane
tary dimensions. The possibility of
comets striking the earth has
often been discussed. Comets do
strike the earth. Every shooting
star is comet, and they come down
upon us in such numbers that but
for the atmosphere, which arrests
their .lotion, we should be in con-
tinual danger of our lives from
them. More than 100000 fall
every day. OF an aggregate weight
possibly of 20,000, 900 pounds. Driv-
ing into our atmosphere with a
speed of fifty miles a second, the
smaller are heated, kindled and dis
sipated into dust, which settles
upon the surface at the will of the
winds. The more massive With
stand the fierce but instantaneous
heat and come hurling through the
air to the ground, with dazzling
flash and explosions like the crash
of heavy artillery. The intense heat
developed is the converted force of
arrested motion, or, in familiar Ian
guage, the heat Of friction. They
are ley cold when they plunge into
our atmosphere.
The comet proper is often swarm
.af nlnnnnClnna
and density as to become visible by
the reflected light Of the sun. Again
it may be solely gaseous body, or
gaseous with solid nucleus. 1T
has been q habit of astronomers to
make light of any possible danger
from comets. Nevertheless 1t Is
certain that a collision with come
tary solid nucleus, even il not more
than fifty miles in diameter, would
be fatally destructive over wide
area. One of thousand miles di.
ameter would knock our globe to
pieces. The possibility of such a
catastrophe cannot be denied, and
there are reasons for believing that
a sister planet of our system has
been thus demolished. New COM
cts tnat have never come before are
coming almost every year, and what
gigantic bodies from the starry
depths may be tending toward us,
threatening ruin no astronomer can
fOresee.
Cometary matter is the debris OF
shattered suns and planets, Tor
these great Orbs, like little things,
are subject to fatal accidents. In
the limitless past systems have col
lided and gone to wreck, and in the
unending future, since all are NOV
ing, and are liable to the same fate,
while at any time some vast comet
of Jovean mass, unfettered by law
and roaming at large, cosmic
tramp, may dash into and break up
harmonious solar system. In his
discussion of the eternal stability OF
our system, Laplace did not count
cometary matter as a disturbing
element, because little was known
about il in his time. IL is now
clear, however, that this matter,
which has built up our system, must
finally destroy it. The sun, in his
journey through space, reaching out
with his mighty gravitation, pulls
in all that lies nearer to path than
to other suns. II Tushes in by
grains, by tons, by swarms, In
clouds, and gathers round him so
densely as TO fairly reflect his rays
and produce the zodical lights.
CIinging around him, it finally set
ties on his surface. Much of it, in
transit, collides with the planets
and is exhibited in the meteors or
shooting stars. 1t follows that the
sun and planets are growing in
mass and thus increasing their mu-
tual attraction, while the planets
are slowly retarded in orbital veloc-
ity by accessiOns of new matter.
The centripetal forces are thus con-
stantly increasing, while the tan
gentical are decreasing. The plan
cts must then be slowly drawing
into the sun. After time, almost
arr eternity, they must, one by one,
all fall Inlo the sun. In the awful
clash of these great orbs, vast guam
titles of matter will be thrown of
into space and set adrift, TO be in
turn absorbed by growing systems
in far-of regions.
The collision of two solar systems
would result in the formation OF n
great nebula, and the dispersion in
! to space of much cometary matter.
| Nebule abound in the star depths,
and where once appears 1t is proba-
BILE that there two suns, with their
accompanying planets, have met In
full career, for it is certain that such
collision would produce a nebul,
and we cannot conjecture how else
one may be formed. The supposi-
ton that they have existed always
as nebul9 Is inadmissible, since the
universe is the arena Of incessant
change, and all nebul@ must ulti-
mately condense into suns.
In this connection may be men
TONED as another possible source OF
danger to our planet the energy OF
the forces at play within the sun.
Here is a vast orb-nearly million
of miles in diameter-Ot liquid mat
| ter in a state Of constant ebullition
the turmoil on his surface can be
seen from our planet. Ills neat,
due to the gravitatiOn OF his mass
upou itself, is generated in the CEN
trail parts, and the superheated mat
ter tends always outward to the sur
face. The sun boils, in familiar
smile, like housewives caldron OF
SOAP. On what scale the bubbling
up progresses we may only try to
imagine. The central heat aug
menting, but confined through
long periods, may finally seek ad-
iustment by one vast convulsive
movement, and the sun, in . meas
ure, turn inside out, when the heat
of the new surface would exceed
many fold that of the old. The ei-
feet on the earth would be imme-
diate. The atmosphere would at
once become incandesceni, the
rocks grow red and melt, and all
vegetation burst into a mighty con-
fiagration. Viewed from a distant
star, our sun and planets are drawn
together into one point OF light. a
spectatOr from that star, looking
toward us, would, in such case, see
a star in the heaVens-Our sun
blaze up with tenfold greater splen-
dor than it showed before. we,
from our planet, often behold In
our heavens other stars making
this sudden exhibition OF augnen-
ted light. 80.
Ii IS worth noting here that the
pr,,yhets Of old, and among them
81. Peter more furcibly than any
other, have clearly predicted the
.smaItinp OF the clements with Ter