Evening journal., 1892-11-19
is THIS BIElES COMET?
That Is the Question Astrono-
mers Are Asking.
WE MAY HIT THE BIG SKY TRAMP.

But There Is Little Danger of a Collision.
Interesting Speculation About the Mys-
terious wanderer at Present Rushing /
Toward Mother Earth at Great speed.
NEW YORK, Nov. 19.-The great comet
which has appeared in the heavens and is /
attracting the attention of astronomers /
throughout the world has caused more /
scientific speculation and calculation than /
any other comet which has approached the /
earth during the present century
The as yet unknown and unidentified
visitor was discovered about midnight Of
Nov. {, and has just becC l,e visible to the
naked eye, but according to calculations
already made it win by Sunday night, Nov.
%, appear 10 the naked eye To be as lafgs
rs the full moon and perhaps two or three
times ~ large.
The comet since its discovery has appar-
emily been coming through space directly
and exactly toward the earth, and the as
tronomers say that at its nearest point 70
this planet It will be nearer the earth than
any comet has ever been before.
It May strike u.
In fact, there is bare possibility that the
celestial visitor mag strike the earth,
though the astronomers say that eyeN
should such an event happen no damage to
the earth could by any possibility occur
The principal reason the comet which has
just come into sight has caused such an in
terest 10 astronomers is that Il il barely
possible the visitor may be the long lost
Biela's comet, which has never been seen
since 1872. The earth, on Nov. q OF thai
year, unexpectedly passed through part
Of Biela,s comet which then appeared In
the heavens in tle form OF the most re-
markable shower OF burning aerolites seen
since 1888.
History of the sky Tramp.
Biela's comet, which was named after
the Austrian astronoIher. OF that name,
who diseoyeredit in February, 1926, was at
first one of,yhe most regular Of comets in
its orbit. Itappeared ut regular intervals
Of about ca years.
In December, 1916, the comet split in TIVE
| pieces with an explosion OF such force as TO
separate the two. parts by-a dista nee o
\ l11,O0O miles within twenty-four hours.
When the time came for the comet to re
appear ia 1852 it did not come. nor did itf
reappear in 1859 nor in 1866 In November,
1872, although it did not appear in the sky
as it had done on previous occasions, the
great shower OF meteors which fell on the
date the corpet was due mt that point in its
otbet nearest the earth caused it to be con
ceded that the long lost comet had finally
been disrupted Since 1872 the comet has
failed to appear, although it was due in
1879 and 1856.
Ever since the discovery Of Biela's comet
men have stood more or less in dread of the
fiery visitor. As to the possibility Of q
collision with a comet, it is an event that
is bound to come-if the earth lasts long
| enough In the course OF millions and mill
lions Of years some comet must surely run
into us. The chances OF such a collision
however, at any given 'ime are inilnite--
imal
"The rife balls Of hunters in the same
woods are more likely to collide,n is tie
way Professor Young puts It.
Not n Hard Hitter.
This Of course refers only to the nucleus
or denser part. The earth has more than
once passed through the train Of meteors
that attend comets, and it also passed
through the tenuous tail OF The famous
comet Of 1861 without Injury The moan
density Of a comets tail is far lower than
that Of the best air pump vacuum. so that
IL is not a hard thing to hit Even near the
nucleus the density is not great
If comet should strike the earth head
on no one can say exactly what the conse-
quences would be. On the generally ac-
cepted theory that the nucleus Of comets is
composed of small particles. the PARTICLES
would be dissipated by friction with the
atmosphere long before they passed through
the fifty miles surrounding the earth II.
however, the nucleus is composed of heavy
masses weighing tons, but widely sepa-
rated, the bombardment to which the earth
would be subjected might result disas-
trOusly.
If a comet fell into the sun-an extremely
improbable occurrence-itis is not likely that
harm would be done. The mass of the
greatest comet is so small compared With
that of the sun that, moving even at the
rate Of 400 miles a secdnd, it would not gen
crate enough heat to hurt the earth