The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-02
What Will Happen to Us if This
Comet Should Strike the Earth !?

say sSe4ne- Scientists claim that it
would glance from our atmosphere
like sas shells shells sl1ittered along smooth
millpond. Others claim that both
comet Ilsearth would be destroyed.
VIE Be- Plainly Visible Aug. 27.
The approaching comet will continue
to charge upon us through the abysses
of space until Aug. 27, when it will be
plainly visible to the naked eye.
In the meantime scientists and as
tronomers in general are trying to fig
ure out what would happen if this on
rushing apparition should hit the earth
a rap in the solar plexus. which we all
believe to be in the latitude and songi-
tude of Greater New York.
The comet from it's nose to end of its
tail is at present about 200,000,000
miles long. The earth is only rs, 900
miles in circumference. The difference
in size is enough to appall any one
who has been in a railroad collision,
where the contending trains were only
one hundred yards long. What chance
this little earth, which is only about
5000 miles thick at the biggest part,
would stand in a smash with mon
Ster whose length is measured by hum
dreds of millions of miles is too much
for the imagination to picture.
Some astronomers claim that a
comet only hits the earth once in
fifteen hundred million years. If that
is 50 we may yet be spared the sensa-
ton until the year 1500001913. Nobody
can foreteH where comet would hit
us if it should decide to do so. But
! that does not matter much because as
! tronomerS say that if Borelli'S comet
were to hit US it would coil around the
earth like a big boa constructor around
| it's victim. 1t would keep on cooling
| a. L.,
! lions Of miles were wrapped about us
like a lace mantilla around the head Of
a Spanish girl.
/ Other astronomers, who wish evil
| IDENTIFY to reassure the public, claim
| that in 1851 comet several
times larger than the one now heading
! for US, hit the earth while travelling at
! the rate of 100000 miles day, and
nobody knew it,
AS to the possibility of a 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
millions of years some comet must
surely run into. us. The chances of
such a collision, however, at any given
time are infinitesimal.
| '.The rifle balls of hunters in the
! same woods are more likely to collide,
| is the way Pref Young puts it.
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 with
out injury. The mean density of a
comets tail is far lower than that of
the best air pump vacuum, so that 1t
is not 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 consequences would be. On the
generally accepted theory that the
nucleus of comets is. composed of small
particles the particles would be dissi-
pated by friction with the atmosphere
long before they passed through the
fifty miles surrounding the earth. If,
however, the nucleus is composed of
heavy. masses, weighing tons, but
widely separated, the bombardment to
which the earth would be subjected
might result disastrously.
If a comet fell into the sun-an ex-
actiy improbable occurrence-it is not