The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-09-20

by all. Then IT faded away, drifted
on on It's sevenay-six yea journey in
to b dark regions of space where
the sun's rays do not reach. Just
now Ia coming back again.
But during each minute Of its alb
sence. even when UNNECESSARILY far
beyond the each OF the most pow
| erful telescope. the v of science
has been following it step by step
along the journey. Still another
planet, Neptune, has been discovered
and added to our solar system. AS
with all the other planets, the invisi-
/ BILE and of gravitation reach gu:
from Neptune and grasp Halley's
comet as 1t passes, making 1t go fas-
ter or slower as the case may be.
This influence has now been taken
account OF and astronomers are now
confident that they have ~prophesied
the time when the comet will round
the sun at the end of its journey to
within the day, perhaps the hour
Perhaps their calculations will go
wrong. Perhaps there will be an err
ror of an hour or two. but IL there is
the Very mistake may mean a great
er triumph for science thar even &C
curafe prediction. Errors in the past
have been caused by the presence of
planetary bodies of which science
knew nothing. Ii their calculations
prove wrong this time it will prove
thai there is still another undiscover-
ed planet, and the little group of
eight worlds of which the earth is n
will find a welcome addition to its
family. Peculiar actions by other
comets have led some
TO the belief that such a ninth planet
exists, and the confirmation of mis-
theory is one of the most important
} additions TO scientific knowledge that
the comet may bring.
One of Philadelphia's leading astro-
nomers said recently that there is a
chance, one chance in a million, that
Halley's comet may not appear at all
Somewhere along the hundreds of
millions of miles of its orbit it may
: have crashed headlong into a star. in
which case. instead of being visited
by a comet. the world will rGn into
a brilliant shower of rn~eteorites. AT
: some time or another such an acct
. dent is the certain fate of comets.
y They cannot forever go wandering
~unhindered through space. Some DAY
Z a tremendous accident. a castrophe of
E worlds, must shatter it to pieces. The
! results of several such collisions have
I accurately been observed. Comets
{ have returned to the earth after an
: absence of years in two or three
! pieces. ach forming separate comets
u with distinct heads and tails. ald in
Dht q a o-lIo naS
c been observed as 1t struck Sons oh
i stacle in its path n split in two.
The possibility of a collision with
q The earth is one that has been pic
o turei by a d writer's, and it:
results described with varying de
5 grees of Imaginative detail. But 10
cal seers of the twelve-inch tele
scope have guaranteed Philadelphia:
= and earth jewellers that Halley's com
T! ct threatens the world with no suci
danger. Its path, they say. does no
AT any time approach that of the eartl
by | 5000, 900 miles and there is no
. the danger of collision.
Ever should a cocnea strike tn,
. earth head-on we might still. the,
say. survive the shock. Although
science has not yet succeeded in com
y putting the weight of the comets anC
their consequent ability to strike
good hard blow. they are believed Il
= be so light in comparison with othe
= heavenly bodies that a collision coult
result in little more serious than theil
|, own destruction. Twenty or thirt,
years ago one of the real nomads o
:, the skies, a comet without fixe(
: course. wandered during its travels
in among he eight satellites of tn