The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-20
COMETS AND ArETEoRs.
Professor Proctor Tells of Their Nature and
Movements.


New York Tribune.
Professor Richard A. Proctor delighted and
ina tructed q large, fashionable and intellectual
audience on Monday evening, at Chickering
Hail. with the third and last of the series of lee
lures on astronomy. He hitehed the swifteSt
steeds of fancy to the staid old chariot of fact.
and gave mis- audience pleasant drive through
space, giving passing look at suns, planets and
stars, and paying particular attention to comets
and meteors aud their pecuiarites. He exam
ned in his introduction the many theories that
have been advanced to explain the movements
Of comets and to account for their existence, and
showed that the latest developments of science
had shown the falsity of the conjectures of the
ancient as well as of the modern astronomer. He
continued:
II have seen it mentioned many times in the
last five years that comets tail is a beam of
light thrown from the head or nucleus of a
comet A comets head cannot gather light, and
stars can be seen through it, which shows that it
has not the power of producing light The latest
theory is that a comets tail is formed by the
suns heat, and consists OF the vapor of iron,
hydrogen and carbon Whether the tail is
straight or curved depends upon the kind Of va
por Jupiter has an interesting family of comets,
and it is noticed that comets are obedient to the
planets in our solar system. Comets were looked
upon by the ancients as evil omens, and are even
looked upon with superstition by many good
people to-day, who believe that they are thefore-
runners of war, pestence and famine
'The comet Of 1879 resembed the comet of
1882, and, with the comets of 1850 and 1863,
gives complete illustration of all the forms of
comets yetobserved. The comet of 1881 showed
many wonderful changes through a telescope,
and a curved and also a straight tail as seen in
this country, and in Europe it bad three tails.
Around the head Of a comet there is vaporous
matter tending toward the sun. When it reaches
a certain point, the sun repels it and it floats
away in the shape of mighty tail There is no
light directly behind comets head generally,
though in Halles comet this region was peeu-
liarly brilliant The comet of 1744 had ten
tails, each having double end. This comet
passed so close to the sun that it is wonder
that it did not go into it.
1.-THE only way a comet can injure the earth is
by crossing its path and leaving meteoric matter
behind, in which the earth will run. Comets
sometimes disappear. The spectroscope shows
or common salt. in the tails CO comets
'Meteors and comets are intimately connect
ed. Meteors are brilliant every thfrty- three
years The great shower is due in 1899 The
orbit of meteors is elliptcal, and extends beyond
the planet Uranus. Meteors are no doubt the
remnants of disintegrated comets They travel
at the rate of thirty miles a second, and every
year 400, 600 900 of them fall to the earth. We
are protected from them because they are usual
ly small, and the atmosphere turns them into
vapor. Large ones sometimes reach the earth.
There are thousands OF comet systems. They
are thrown out from planets. The comet of 1882,
that was expected to destroy the earth, has gone
off on a journey that it will take $50 years to
finish. The grandest of all bodies was the
coment Of 1911 1t was 100000 miles through
the head and its tail was 1l5 600 900 miles long,
and it moved with velocity of $40 miles sec
ond. If it had struck the sun it would have de-
stroyed life in all the solar systems. In the
language of Richter: End there is none to the
universe of God, and also no beginning"