Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-17

II EKOND all possible doubt. Halleys
n comet is now busy forming a
- streamer pointed away from the
sun. 1t We're much more nearly true
to say that the pressure of energy
| radiating from the sun is repelling ex-
cessively fine particles from the nucleus
to the rear. Some of these emit light
of their own, while the remainder re-
fleet light received from the sun, the
combined lights blending into the opti-
cal appearance of a streamer. The
comet is now coming in from beyond
the orbit of the most distant known
plant, Neptune. 1t started back in 1874.
History mentions twenty apparitions
of this celestial splendor, the first in
B. c. Il, the last in A. d. 1885, an in
tervale of 1S47 years, which divided by
twentyfour gives a quOtient of
seventy-six years and $50 days, or 28,-
109 days, the mean or average of all
times of circuit of it's mighty orbit.
When any cosmical body is in peri
helion it is at it's nearest possible ap-
hproach to the sun. From the comets
perihelion A. D. 1881 to its perihelion
passage in 1907 the period was 27,811
days, an acceleration over the mean of
29S days. From 1907 to 1882. 1882 days,
a shortening of the average of 757 days.
and OF the last period of 459 days. On
its return to perihelion on March 13,
1859, the time elapsed was 2S938 days,
or S29 days longer than the average,
and $50 longer than the preceding cir
cult. Then trouble appeared.
Proof of Newton's Gravity Law
Jealous ones at once said in view of
these irregularities the laws of universal
gravitation deduced by Newton cannot
be true. Then began one of the most
remarkable series of mathematical re-
searches in the entire career of science.
The most eminent mathematicians in
the world began profound investiga-
tions to find the cause Of these accelera-
tions and retardations. The abstruse
cause discovered proved Newton's laws
to be rigidly true under test conditions.
The changes were all caused by the
variations in intensity of attraction of
all the planets upon the comet, owing
to their ever varying positions, with
reference to the comet and to them
selves. M. M. Clairaut and Lalande
and Mdlle, Hortense Lepaute worked
assiduously on this giant problem to
set the date of perihelion passage of
the comet next following that of 1852
Their report was made to the academy
of France in 1853, stating that the
perihelion passage would be delayed
618 days. OF this delay 100 days would
be due to the disturbing attraction of
Saturn and 51S to that of Jupiter. But
they added that an uncertainty of
thirty days was conceded owing to at
traction of the smaller planets, and
fixed the time of perihelion at the mid
die of April, 1853. It actually passed
on March 49, thirty-two days in ad-
vance. This was considered to be
most wonderful prediction. Astron-
omers became all worked up over the
matter. Then they gave honor to the
woman mathematician who helped. 1t
is now known that this achievement
was great. These computers did not
know of the existence of Uranos and
Neptune. And then none of the other
planets nor the sun had been weighed
with such accuracy as has now been ac-
complished.
The PeriheIion Of A. D. 1910
The ablest mathematicians have
been at arduous labor for long in
computing the time of the comets
nearest approach to the sun on its re-
turn in 1910 This is given in Green
wich, England, mean time. Reducing
to the standard time of the 10th meri-