Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-27
THE SKY MYSTERY
IA Discussion of What the
Comet Really Is.
SPHERE OF SOLAR ENERGY
Halley's Wanderer Object of Great.
est Interest in Centuries.
BEYOND THE FINITE REASON
It's Existence Incomprehensible to
the Mind of Man, and It's Phe-
nomena Little Understood.
By Edwin Fairfax Naulty.

The so-called Halley's comet is today a
| far greater object of interest to scientific
and lay men than if there had been no
! doubt of its identity, no apparent mystery
| and confusion over its appearance and its
| transit of the sun, no remarkable varia-
| ton in it's tail and no quarrel over it's
| constituency. For the comet, which is
now in the western sky and racing away
| toward outer space. when all the phe-
nomena connected with it shall have been
thoroughly digested in the observatories
of the world, will be found to have taught
US, by a series of practical object lessons,
more about solar dynamics. and the ele-
mental composition OF our solar system
and the mysterious energy by which the
motion of the sun, the planets and their
satellites, the cosmic gases and all forms
of matter are sustained, than If it had
! fulfilled all the expectations Of those as
| tronomers who thought its head to be
either solid mass or composed of me-
teorites enveloped In gas and its tail
| to be a great streamer OF gas forced away
from the head by electrical repulsion of
the sun.
The appearance Of a tail in the east,
when the comet had actually passed the
sun, the appearance of great sun spots
on the disk of the sun on the day of
transit and their subsequent disappear
ance, the apparent utter disappearance OF
the gaseous tail last Wednesday and its
failure to sweep the earth with q great
blast of poisonous gases, even In q high
state Of diffusion, the curious reversed
| curvature of the tail in the east and
| west, the searchlight rays reported from
Alden, from Mexico and other points, as
| same rays which l watched for five
hours at the Naval Observatory the pres
ent fan.shaped tall and the later
| straight shaft of light that will appear
| in its stead, the earth tremors, disturbed
! weather, tornadoes, can all be given a
| rational and natural explanation II one
| will postulate these facts and reason
from them.
| Spheres of Dynamic Energy.
| The heads Of comets are spheres Of
| dynamic energy. in revolution on an
| axis. as we'll as in an orbit. AS they
pass through different layers OF the cos
| mic gases or nebulouS matter that fills
| our solar system, these spheres Of energy
absorb or collect the atoms OF the par
! ticular gas through which they are pass
ing, SO that the particular constituency
| of the head Of the comet changes from
| time to time; these foundation spheres
! Of energy increase Dramatically as they
| approach the sun and lose force as they
recede from it; they are specifically
| gyroscopic or globular. whirling spheres.
| The gases attracted by their motion are
}
| spheres and SO. the center of a comet
head is dense and its circumsphere diff
fuse. These spheres of cosmic gases, by
| their very makeup. possess the quality
| inherent i'm the earth's atmosphere; they
collect refract. defract, diffract, condense
and transmit solar energy in the form
of light.
| The tails Of comets are composed of
this collected and transmitted light. The
nuclei are the focal points Of this light
I'm the spherical head. The envelopes
are the illumination by sunlight of the
layers of gas of varying density that
compose the head. The gases which APP
pear to be part Of the tail are not part
Of it per Sc, but are the result Of the
illumination OF the cosmic gases hlllng
our solar system by the great smart OF
light thrown through them by the COM
| cts head. The lighting up Of dust par
sunlight will explain. The curvature OF
| the tail is not real, but Is only an ap-
| pearance, due to the fact that we some
times see the tail through our at
| pears curved, the atmosphere OF the
| earth being huge convex lens. through
| which we must view all celestial bodies.
A straight line viewed through such a
! lens out of radius will appear curved.
| and the curve will always present Its
| conyexity to the diameter OF the lens.
The apparent tagging" Of the tail be-
hind the head is not real. 1t Is optical,
the fact that the light from the end OF
a comets tall ninety million miles
long would take eight minutes longer to
| reach our eyes than that from the heao.
Questions and Answers.
much more technical hypothesis
would be required to cover all the phe-
nomena. but in simple. language these
two hypotneses fairly cover the ground
| Adopting the Greek method. / submit a
series or questions with plain answers
| based on these hypothesis.
How can a sphere Of energy, MOVING
Through the solar system, absorb cosmit
gases and continually change?
Roll a marble across table on which
are laid streaks OF various colored pig
merits 1t will pick up atoms from eacf
streak. and as the different colors com
bined. they would produce new colors. 1
: there was a heavy streak OF red
: your marble would be red; II mex
4 were blue the marble would SHOW
the color of red and blue combined, bu
| If the blue were q wide streak, as TIL
marble rolled the combined color woul
= change to q blue. Gases combine wit
= each other to form other gases. O
: course. the comet Is not rolling over. bu
6 through the gases and IT is not solid. Xix
e the marble.
How can such sphere OF energy a