The times., 1899-03-08
BIELA'S COMET Will
NOT END THE WORLD
Astronomer FlammariOn Up.
sets Falb's Theory.
No Reason to Fear NebulOus Oc-
cupants of the Skies.
4 Hcnd-On Collision Might he Dis
astrOus. Hut the Chances Are
Vastly Against Such IN
Occurrence.
lFrom the Now York HeraldO

(From the New York Herald)
The world is to come to an end on No
vember II, 1899. So says the Austrian
astronomer Rudolph Falb. But the world
does not seem to be greatly alarmed. IL
has heard such predictions before. An
ciently it was less philosOphic. Fear of
the coming catastrophe may now and then
have scared it out of at least centurys
growth. Mr-Falb says that the world will
be destroyed by contact with Biela's comet.
Now Biela's comet is the one which was to
have destroyed the world in 1892 Then
there was something like a public panic
1t was told in the press of the day how
the astronomer Olbers, the result of a
careful study in advance of the comets
movements. had found that the comets
centre would, shortly before midnight on
October 20 of that year, cross the earth's
orbit. The calculation not fully un
derstood by the public, and alarmed them
enough to make them talk about the forth
coming destruction of our globe.
But what is the earth's orbit? 1t is the
circle in which the earth moves round the
sun. If ball is projected across track
its shock is only to be dreaded if there is
anyone passing along the track at the same
place and moment as the ball. Now, our
planet was timed to reach the place where
the comet would cross its orbit full four
weeks after the comet had come and gone.
Therefore there was not the shadow of a
reason for alarm. The journalists of 1892
confounded the trajectory of the ball with
the ball itself
So much is pointed out by NJ. Flamma-
rion in letter to the Paris edition Of the
Herald" NJ. Flammarion goes further.
He declares that even If there had been
a contact, earth meeting comet face to face
nothing serious would have occurred, so
far as the earth was concerned. Astron-
omers know that space is full of comets,
flying in every direction around the sun,
like moths around candle, and that the
earth turning round the central star is ex-
posed to the chance of coming into con-
tact with many of them. But comets are
imponderable bodies; a sort of airy moth
Ing a mass of gas and vapor. The terres-
trial globe can pass through them, most OF
them, like cannon ball through a swarm
OF flies. This is what actually happened on
June 80 1861, according to a calculation by
Hind, the highest living authority on COM
cts. The earth passed into and through
the tail of the great comet of that year at
about two-thirds its distance from the nu-
cleus. Nothing happened save peculiar
phosphorescence or illumination of the
sky. The sun, though shining gave a fee
BILE light. The comet was plainly visible
in England at quarter to o'clock in the
evening. during sunshine and had much
more hazy appearance than on any subse-
quent evening.
Flammarion adds another reason for Sc
renity. Biela's comet, whose revolution
round the sun is, or rather was accom-
pllshed in six years and seven months did
encounter the earth on November 81, 1872
OF course, an allowance must be made
Biela's comet, if it ever was dangerous. is
no longer so. for it is about dead itself.
having been broken into millions of shoot
ing stars.
The Death of BieIn's Comet.
So far back as 1916 this comet was seen
TO split in two, and these nebulous twin
bodies continued to travel side by side
through space for four months. the dis
lance between the fragments slowly in
creasing- Then they passed out of sight
owing to the distance from the earth which
they had obtained. When they returned
to perihelion, in 1852, the two portions still
retained their individuality, but the dis
tance between them had increased TO about
eight times the greatest distance noticed
in 1876. Then they entirely disappeared
and have never been seen since.
What has become of them? Astrono-
mers believe that they have broken up
into a mass of meteors. On November ~,
1872, and again in November 1885. when
the earth, in travelling along its own orbit
should have encountered Bela's comst a
wonderful mass of shooting stars estimat-
ed at lC0, 900, were seen instead. This pro
digious swarm arrived at a point in the
heavens corresponding to that which
should have been occupied. not by the
head of the comet (which if still extant,
would have passed the point in the earths
orbit twelve weeks previously, but by it's
tail. There is no doubt that these msteors.
which apparently are keeping more or less
together as compact swarm. are moth
ing else than the disintegrated material
of what was once Biela's comet.
Flammarion, indeed, grants that there
might be danger IL our earth came into
direct contact with the head of a very
large comet. The consequences would
differ materially. according to the nature
and direction of the shock. 1t can readily
be seen that if Il comet came upon us
from behind, the speed of its shock would
be at minimum, whereas, if it met us face
to face. 1t would be at a maximum of
~, 900 metres per second. We would doubt
less penetrate without any sensible resist
ance into the nebulous substance of the
comet But if the comet were an unusually
large one, then. no matter how feeble the
resistance. nor how slight the density of
the head of the comet, the passage through
this substance by our earth moving at a
speed one hundred and twenty times that
of a cannon ball might. through the natu-
raj transformation of movement into heat
create such rise in temperature that cur
entire atmosphere would take fire like
Il bowl OF punch.
y fine spectacle doubtless for the inhabi-
tants of Mars and Venus, To us il might
be the end OF the world by fire, as predicted
in the Scriptures.
But NJ. Flammarion hastens to reassurc
us. By the doctrine OF chances he shows
that this event is so improbable that the
odds are million TO one that it will not
take place before life on this planet shall
have ended through old age, brought about
simply by the extinction of the sun.
At all events. Bela's comet, as comet.
is dead and there is no further danger to
be apprehended from that source. We
shall indeed. encounter its broken frag-
ments on November II. as part of the
splendid meteoric showers which must
make this year memorable one in astro-
nomical annals.
Shooting Star Exhibitions.
All precedent teaches the startling fact
that about every thirty-three years a
grand shooting star shower rains down
upon our earth This phenomenon was true
of 1866 and of 1888. Astronomers confident
ly expect that it will be true of 1899 At
present the tlay of the wear on which this