The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-11-20

M ay nave been reckoned of slight account
by others living at the time, to them We
owe much of the present perfection Of
these subjects. Every year nearly a small
number of new comets are reported merely
to the general public, which could not be
expected to care for more, but to tie as.
tronomer each is source of interest, and
its welfare is looked to as carefully as NAV
be, considering the great distances at
which these strangers hold themselves and
how anxious they would seem to be to
take their departure from the family of
planets, among which they have become en-
tangled. Probably not less than four thou-
sand comets large enough to have been
seen with our present appliances and quite
likely to have been picked up by the
searchers of our day if the search had
been kept up as vigorously, have entered
the solar system since the beginning of the
Christian era. Could we know as much
of all these as We do of the few that have
been observed since the perfection of the
methods now in use there would be light
undoubtedly on many obscure points. Two
hundred and eighty-five orbits can be found
OF comets which have been well enough
observed to render it possible to compute
an orbit. BY these the astronomer can
trace the courses of any of the old comets,
not only during the period while they were
visible to the star gazers of the time, but
before they had come into view at all and
after they had vanished from sight. It is
thus quite possible to determine the di-
recti0n from which any or all of them
have come, before entering the planetary
system, but with this direction he must
for the present stop; he can as yet go no
farther. While there are still many mystic
ries in our solar system.yet to be solved,
Of the universe beyond its limits we know
almost absolutely nothing. We determine
The directions of the stars, but the problem
of til cir distances will never, in all proba-
bility, be solved with much approach to
certainty with all that skill in the making
and use of instruments can accomplish.
Meeting ship in mid-ocean, catching
the first view when it is OH the distant
horizon, as it passes to vanish beneath the
rim OF ocean astern one gets the course of
the stranger and from it's appearance
might hazard guess as to its port of de-
parture and destination. These could be
definitely settled were it known to be
holding to an invariable course, unin-
huenced by wind or current and not liable
to collision unforeseen in advance.
Nothing in the appearance of comet
gives us any clue as to its origin, but we
do know that it is obeying the same laws
under the sway of which the earth swings
on its course and as long as it remains
within the influence of the sun, the ruler
of the planetary motions, the comet yields
itself to the same authority. At what dis
lance the sun first begins to exert this
authority or what forces have been in con-
troll of the comets before the revolution
by which they have thrown off their old
allegiance to accept the hazards of new
can not be determined.
And there are hazardous epochs in the
short life Of many comets in the life of
which the history can be written. Their
paths may bring them close to one of the
big planets, whose attraction shall whirl
them off their previously adopted orbit
into one that will keep them revolv-
ing about the sun until such approach
shall twist them off to recede into outer
space. This would correspond to certain
extent to collision in space, to say no.
thing of the chan es OF an actual meeting
face to face with one of the planets, of
which chance our earth comes in for
share one in few billion or SO. Then if
they have not taken course that will
bring them very close to the sun they are
to be subjected to degree of heat beyond
with our standards for molten
metal even, while the suns powers will
likely deprive the comet of material enough
to form a tail. which will be scattered far
and wide to form possibly a future me-
teoric display.
The direction only, then, from which
the comet comes is to be determined, and
while they may have come to us from any
of the stars, beyond the fact that there
may be star in the same direction, more
or less close perhaps to several comets,
nothing can be definitely asserted. Through
the realms of space comets are scattered
with a profusion apparently inexhaustible.
If there are no regions especially rich in
and if there are no causes by
which more would be drawn from any
special quarter we should expect to find
the points representing the origins Oh d.
rection from which the comets have come
evenly distributed on all sides of US
There are groups Of points of origin,
whatever the cause of these groupings
may be, too frequent to be accidental in an
equal distribution; and, while the known
points form too small proportion of all
that must have been established unknown
to human Investigations, to draw any re-
liable conclusion, some effect seems to be
traceable to the motion of the solar system
1UOOA Ill 0DdCCs w 1tllOou $SOAAAS luUO UuIS
matter, it is enough to state that based on
the small but Undetermined movements
of the stars as seen from the neighbor-
hood of the sun, which is but a star itself,
the direction of the motion of the sun
among the other stars is considered known
within DO great uncertainty. The amount
of the motion is not great enough to affect
the supply of comets by exhausting any
region, but it does appear that taking
equal areas situated in corresponding
manner in the quarters respectively from
which and to which the sun Is moving.
arrying with it the planets and all comets
fully under its sway. more come in from
the areas behind. Moreover this
consideration is not influenced to the same
extent by the lack of material. since fair
portion may be considered as giving in
general the indications coming in
from the regions behind on the average