El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-14
HALEY, THE COMET
MAN.
Birthday Anniversary of Discoverer of Tramp Comet

I drew Jackson was president Of the
United States, and in the very thick
of his fight against the money power
1t then turned back, and jOurneyed to-
ward infinity until after the close of
the civil war, when. in the middle of
Grants first term. it started back to-
! ward the earth at the same mad pace
| that had characterized its going.
Black Sheep Comet.
Each time one Of these black sheep
OF the celestial family, as the comets
have been called, appears to mortal
sight it is less bright than it was be-
fore. AS they fly through space the
solid matter they cast off pours over
them with the result that each succeed
ing return finds them less brilliant.
| Some Of those with short circuits have
| shown up as mere ghosts of their for
| mer selves, and have finally failed to
return altogether. But about the time
| they We're due to return the earth
crossed their orbit and encountered
meteOric shower. causing the scientists
to understand that meteors are but the
! flying debris of an exploded comet
| May Be Collision.
There has been some discussion as to
our chance of collision with this re-
! turning vagabond of space That we
may Craze its head by q miss of only
about 10000 miles Is predicted. and
that we may even pass through its tail
is said to De more than a bare possibiI-
! ity.
But as this tail is less substantial
than the best vacuum man has been
able to produce, there seems to be little
possibility of serious damage even If
We do sail right through it. 1t IS re-
corded that our grandfathers went
| through the tail of a comet in 1919 and
that our fathers did the same thing in
( 1861.
| Some astronomers think we could COL
| Tide with the very head of the comet
4 itself and still escape unscathed. Pro-
fessor Pickering thinks we have struck
at least one important comet, and that
| it did no serious damage.
| He thinks the great hole in the earth
at Coon Butte, Arizona, was made by
the core of a comet striking there. He
calls attention to the fact that there
have been 1872 meteorites Of iron found
in the western hemisphere, as compared
with 70 on the eastern, and concludes
| that inasmuch as they were most
abundant in the country contiguous to
Arizona, they are evidences Of q col
| lision in which the Coon Butte hole was
the principal damage sustained
Many Meteorites Fall.
There were 292 meteoTites observed to
| fall in the nineteenth century, and only
II of these were of iron. Most astrono-
mers believe that iron meteorites are Of
cometary origin. while those of stone
are OF terrestrial origin. having at some
remote time in history been hurled away
from the earth by some tremendous
cataclysm. 1t must have been ter
rifle explosion that sent them wander
ing through space, for ii has been
proved by the scientists that If a ter
reseriaI object Is to get away from the
magnetism of the earth it must have an
initial velocity of seven miles a second.
OF course the highest explosive known
has no sUc1 treu-c l.cuS f'r CT. 1t IS
one of those things which have been
theoretically proved but not prac- /
ticaIly demonstrated.
Comets Have Different Cats.
Comets have different gaits. Some
move hundred miles a second, and
others loiter along at only ten to 20
miles a second. Some Of them~have to
travel around such a vast orbit that
it takes them thousands of years 10
make the circuit Some of them fly in
a straight line, perhaps, through I'M
ending years It would take the kind
which travel hundred miles a second
more than eight thousand years to reach
the nearest star.
No men in all the world have such a
sense of mans littleness as those who
are the ScHllueiS Oh the dSlTOQOmlc
watchtowerS- We think we are some
thing. but they exclaim with feeling
that David never knew, What is man
that Thou are mindful of him2' The
earth looks big to the average mortal,
but the astronomers know that IL is
smaller in proportion to the universe
than the tiniest germ that dwells in
our blood
They see one star so far away that al
though it travels 200 miles between
clock ticks in thousand years 1t seems
to move only through the diameter of
three and a half moons. They know
that this whole mighty universe is
moving onward at the tremendous gait
of 26 miles a second. but when it comes
to telling whether it is moving in a
circle or in a straight line, where the
end of the journey will be. or what the
source Of the infinite power that pro-
pels it onward, they stand as helpless
and dumb as untutored children They
must confess that there are realms n
Gods universe where human reason
cannot go.
Tomorrow-'"The Statue of Lee"