Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-15
Heavy Atmosphere BaIks
Morning Skygazers.
NO COLLISION ON RECORD
Only a Brilliant Spectacle at Most,
Astronomer Believes:
SUN HAS BEEN ALMOST GRAZED
Three Wanderers Whose Orbits Cross
That of Earth and Might
Have Met.

Clouds obscuring the heavens yesterr
day morning made impossible the obser-
walton of Halleys comet by the brigade
of early rising amateur astronomers in
tbs capital
Nevertheless il may be taken as assured
that the heavenly wanderer climbed over
the horizon on schedule time, shortly be-
fore 3 O'Clock and that it continued the
Journey along it's allotted path, pushing
its tail before it.
Astronomers compute that the comet is
distant from the earth some 26.9OoWO
miles today, and that this distance is rap
idly growing less. So there Will ne ample
opportunity for star gazers 10 we" the
racer of the sky on other clear mornings
and evenings later this month.
Astronomical Collisions Discussed.
Popular speculation regarding what
might transpire in event of the pumping
of mother earth by the comet makes par
ticularly apropos paper written Tor Inc
Star by a local authority on astronomy
on the general subject of Astronomical
Collisions.
THE passage OF Halleys comet the
writer SAYS within 12,OJWo miles OF
the earth. in it's transit May 10. recalls
Of astronomical collisions.
Astronomers have said that the UNI
verse of space is in one sense 1uil anu
crowded: that the number of stars Is a
thousand millions; that the number visi-
bic with our largest telescopes is esti-
mated at about sixty millions; that I'M
munity from collision between heavenly
bodies depends mainly upon their beinS
held in orderly orbits by central attrac-
tton, thus making 1t quite Impossible for
the planets to collide with each other or
even approach each other closely; and
that If gravitation were suddenly 10
cease the earth would travel for ages
without ever encOuntering anything more
important than meteors, such as are now
continually falling on its surface
Encounters between heavenly bodies of
great magnitude must be extremely rare
when in all astronomical record there is
rot a single instance of such an occur
renee. Yet some astronomers contend that
some time or other in the past such
events must have happened. and in time
might occur again.
anything is to be feared from Halleys
comet, as a consequence either of COL
lision with the earth or of its fall into the
sun. Babinet computed that comet
would strike the earth about once in tif-
teen million years. Yet IT is known that
the orbits of at least three comets cut
the earths path SO closely that if they
should have reached the crossing at the
same time as the earth a collision must
have occurred. These comets were Biela s,
Temples and the comet of 1SG2.
Comets Close to Sun.
NO comet has yet been known ac-
tually 10 strike the sun. Several have
grazed very near it.
Astronomers differ as to the conse-
Quences of comets collision with the
earth, and contend that it is impossible
to predict the result with scientific GER
tainty.
LAS the mass or quantity OF matter in
a comet is extremely small compared
with that of the earth, ii is safe TO think
the consequences might be insignificant.
value until some definite estimate can
be made OF the density of the central
nucleus of a comet-that is, whether it
- solid or vaporous. With the aid of
the spectroheliograph astronomers are
hoping to make this advancement in the
knowledge of cometary matter when Hal
ley's comet will be in position for such
observations.
Prof. c. A Young said some years ago:
II a comet has at the center any great
mass of stone or iron, or even close
packed swarm of aerolites weighing a
ton OF two apiece, collision with II
would, of course. be most serious mat
ter, spreading devastation and conflagra-
ton possibly over half the globe at once;
not amounting, probably. to anything like
a destruction of the world, but far more
disa strous than any earthquake or vol
eanic eruption. II Is far more likely.
however that the encounter with a comet
would be entirely harmless, simply a
most magnificent and brilliant shower of
shooting stars lasting for an hour or
two-a phenomenon which one might well
desire TO see.
Only Brilliant Spectacle.
AS for the effect of collision between
q comet and the sun, in respect to which
there has been much disquieting specula-