Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1909-12-31

example, Baelas comet which was discovered in 1926. burst into two frag.
a twin comet Eventually it disappeared rs a comet and in its stead we we
years. 1t is possible that the comets If 1868, 1s4s, 1880, 1882 and 1887. all
bo ars' Which IN ~s 1 Sroten up ' ns sh%e gr raSHs do action Of r. other aA Bodies in in
the system, or through violent encounter with the suns surroundings.
The Comets Tail.
The luminous tail which streams behind the nucleus, which Milton
regarded a $ "horrd hair' that shakes pestlence and war" is startling, to
dH million miles 1T. 1T is SO daphano "hy light IT. and subtle . I'll tha S.d 1t is am nl
composing that wonderful luminous plume would lot outweigh a jarful of
volume thousands s. Of times greater than than the SUI u to ton sweep through Ih1oaaa. or solar solar
earth itself has o. more than n occasion plowed through a comets tail.
'a's1 Because wnsn t eoget nS a. ne wsi1, ths IS e ~PP tber tails i, must ct be inferred
that collisions with fiery wanderers are likely to occur. Such catacysms
happen only in Jules vernes novels and in the Sunday newspaper; The
sensational journalist When Oilers calculated that Belas comet would
inquirng where the earth would be: It a not until Arago reassuringly
did take place that the u o human emotion was stopped and confidence
and then only nc in fifteen million years. A blind sportsman, bent o.
ductshooting, stands a better chance # hitting his target than the earth of
Boz. No celestial xs pnsnomsnoa has caused more psrDlesny than the ghestly
of tina iaam W9nde nan s 'nsa na may n change &c, Hence; Hence it, is , that periodic erl,dea comets Ss
the telescope, it appears as a diminutive hlmy patch, Otter unadorned by
a modern rife rife bullet bullet would seem en to, to crawl nM., violent tn sns er tt as.o occur a5i in the he
coma" With a nearera approach to the sur. the tail begins to sprout, in.
necton between the sur and the tail, something akin to ause and effect
the nucleus like the smoke from a locomotive. But when the comet swings
around ar" MT n ne SUI ,anaa and I travels hsa away from It, a startling change takes place.
solar vino were blowing it in advance Of the head. The phenomenon es has
to obey the laws of gravitaton and yield to the enormous pull Of the sun
1t "a thought for a time that the tail ws flung away from the SUI by
supendous repeling electrical forces. That electricity plays its part in the
formation of the fairy plume is conceivable, n even probable; but recently
the physicist has discovered a lev sourc of epenent energy which very
plausiby explains the mystery of a comets tail. This nw source Of energy
is nothing less than the pressure or push of the suns light. Solar gravita-
ton is a forcem nor powerful than many of us perhaps realize. If it were
possible for you to If on the sun, you would find yourself pulled down SO
@1oenuy that your body would weigh two tons. Your clothing alone would
weigh more than mi hundred pounds. Running would be a very difficult
athletic feat. Light pressure must indeed b powerful II it al so
relentless a force
A Tail Of Dust and SCOT.
So much has been discovered about the particles that compose a comets
tail that the more progressive scientists Of our day have accepted this in
genious theory. 1t has been discovered, for example. that the delicate
tresses of a comet are to a large extentc composed of fine particles of dust
and SCOT.
Before W e "a completely accept the view that light pressure forms this
train Of SCOT re must ascertain whether the pressure of light is capable Of
accounting fol the hashlike rapidity with which a comets tail changes A
comet may throw out a tail sixty million miles long n two days. Is It ac-
tuaLy posslbef or light pressure to accomplish that sonshing eat Ar-
heniush has computed that S65OO0 miles a hour is the speedo O a ighthunp
particle Of onehalf the critical diameter. Because hey NJ onv me.
eighteenth a large as this particle of critical diameter, cometary lust grains
would be propelled owe the sam 865, 900 miles in less than fu mute
1t follows that the solar radiation would experience no dimculty in tosstne
out a tail II sixty million miles in two days.