The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-08-12
RAPID TRANSIT.
IT Is Figured Out That a Comet Traveli
Three Hundred Miles IL Second.

il Is Figured out That Comct AFa'eh
Three Hundred Miles Il Second.
A tremendous mass Of mathematical
data was obtained by the astronomers
who observed the CONNECT of 1852, and
TIE labor of collating, digesting and
discussing those data was enormous.
1t is no wonder, then, that the scientific
world has had to wait so long for the
final results of the investigation.
by all odds the most curious thing
that was noticed about this comet was
the change of form while it was passing
around the sun. Before perihelion-
that is, just before it reached the point
nearest the solar orb-thc comet APP
pcared as single bright spot, with the
usual vaporous tail accompanying it.
1t then disappeared from view,
going around the sun SO close
as to pass through the solar
atmosphere, whence it emerged on
the other side in. little more than three
hours after its disappearance. 1t was
now completely metamorphosed. The
body of the flying object was now
elongated Instead Of one bright spot
It looked like string of four or five
stars, which were arranged in straight
line, and surrounded by the gaseous en-.
velope as before.
Wherefore this changer" was the
grand question for consideration of the
scientific observers.
Many difficulties arose in the consid-
Grafton of this problem. 1t was not
certain, in the first place, which par
ticular bright spot of the four or five
each observer has chosen as the center
of his observations. This troU3le was
surmounted by taking the axis of the
elongated object as the center, without
reference to any single spot.
The observations taken before peri
helion were discussed in order to deter
mine what the course of the comet was
at that period of its flight, and the sub
sequcnt observations were similarly
studied by themselves, so as to find out
the nature of the course after the comet
mao turned around the sun. 1t was
necessary to do this, so as to get some
idea of the disturbances to which the
comet had been subjected during its
passage through the solar atmosphere.
A very remarkable result was OBJ
tanned, and it must be remembered that
the result was not at all matter of
theory, but of unquestionable mathe-
NAUTICAL accuracy. 1t was found that
each of the nuclei or separate spots
composing the comet was travelling,
after the circuit of the sun, in
different orbit from all the
rest. Spot No. /, for instance
was shown by the computations to
be sailing along through space in an
cliptical path of such a character that,
If it did run against any snag in the
course of its wanderings. it would re-
turn to the sun after the expiration of
about six hundred and sixty years.
Spot No. 2, however, was traversing an
ellipes of which the periodicity was
about seven hundred and seventy years
The next fragment had period CEN
tnry longer than this, and so on, the
period of the last being something like
one thousand years. 1t was thus rem
dered quite clear that the first part of
the comet of 1881 will come back to tho
center of the solar system full one
hundred years or more before the Sec
ond, and that the other fragments will
then trail along behind the first and
second at intervals.
This is regarded by astronomers as a
very valuable result, which may account
for the visitations of great many
comets of the last two centuries whose
orbits have been similar to that of the
comet of 1882.
The period of the comet before it
reached the sun was not determined,
but it was settled that it's course was an
ellipes, and, therefore, that it must
have visited the sun before at some time
or another.
1t was hard to tell the nature of the
force that broke the comet up while it
was shooting through the outer en-
velope of old Sol, out it seemed quite
clear that the force, whatever it was,
emanated from the body of the comet
itself, and not from the sun. The dis
lance around the sun, traversed in
something over three hours, was more
than one million miles. That is, the
comet was travelling at the inconceiv-
able speed of three hundred miles Sec
ond. But it was calculated, and no
error could have been made in the cal
culation, that the celestial rocket did
not lose more than five feet second of
its velocity out of the entire three hun
dred miles, through the retardation of
the solar atmosphere. 1t seem plain,
therefore, from this consideration, as
we'll as from other mathematical data,
that the force that disjointed the me-
teor was not merely the retarding force
of the sun. Boston Herald.