Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-02-26
A Celestial Tramp.


Encke'S comet, whose return has been
announced by the astronomers. is byno
means stranger. He is as really q
part OF the solar system as Mars or the
earth, and all these centuries has been
making his revolutions about the sun,
passing and repassing our world with
great frequency. Although often seen,
this comet was unable to attract atten-
ton until 1918. During that year a
comet was observed by the astronomer
Pons whose motions could not be rec
oncIed with the SuppositiOn of para
bollc orbit. Arago remarked that its
elements were much like those of q
comet which appeared in 1905, and
others, by a similar comparison, identi-
fed 1t with a comet seen in 1895. Encke
found that the observations might all be
satisfied by supposing the comet to move
IN an elliptical orbit with a period OF
between three and four years With a
marvellous ingenuity he computed the
perturbations effected by all the planets
with the exception of Uranus and the
Asteroids. He found that the comet
moved in an elongated ellipse, the ma
Jor axis of which was about SCI, 900, 900
miles in length, and its minor axis not
more than half the length of the former.
In other words, the comet. instead of
being a visitor from the great spaces
between the solar system and the stars.
was found to move in an orbit the ex-
tremity of which was 100, 0000 900 miles
this side of Jupiter and nine times less
remote than the planet Neptune. The
proximate period of its revolution is
1,2O7 days, or about three and one-third
years.
A peculiar interest attaches to this
meteor from the fact that Encke proved,
or, seemed to prove, that the planetary
pull on this mass of matter would not
fully satisfy the problem. He supposed,
and made room for in his calculation.
resisting medium contrary to all the
theories of the inter-planetary spaces
hitherto entertained The comets per-
iOd is shorter at each return than be-
fore. BY paradox not beyond expli-
cation the friction, which would be sup
posed to lengtnen the period of revolu-
ton, on the contrary lessons what is
called the centrifugal force, and draws
the whole orbit into a smaller space
about the sun. At all events, this is the
reasoning of astronomers. They pre-
dict that ultimately the comet, sweep
ing around the sun in a cOnstantly-dim-
inishing orbit, will fall into the great
luninary as an insignificant atom of the
fuel with which the sun is supplied
from day to day from the meteors and
other drift-Wood of limitless space.
That there may be resisting medium
in space which affects comet but does
not affect the planets, whose revolution
has not sensibly changed since obserya-
tons were first made, is regarded as
not improbable from the attenuty of
this medium, which to an attenuated
mass like comet would prove to be
measurable retarding power, while to
ponderous globe the resistance would
be too small to become visible IN a few
thousands of years. Encke's comet is
called the ''short-period comet its
period being less than any other. 1t is
small and commonplace affair. But
if people will be patient one viii arrive
shortly probably just a tritie more
worthy of public attention. Faye's
comet, which visited this neighborhood
in 1873, is due in eleven months, or in
February, 1886. Not improbably in the
meantime some conspicuous meteor of
this order may be visible in the heavens.