Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-12
And he defends the idea as fol-


lows:
Comets are lit up partly by cathode
rays from the sun. When they strike any
obstacle they transform themselves into
rays. with thu speed OF light. fhus
the tail of Hsiley's comet. 6o.af1,sD miles
long and from 6o0.1p To l.Tn.oD miles
thick. VIII become vast source OF y
rays of great penetration and speed.
Now. what are the most striking ef-
fects of y rays on our atmosphere?
asks Deslandres. 1t is a banal labora-
tory experiment They ccndensc water
yapOr.
So speaks the savant and any one
soaked in the continual rains OF all Ed
rope in this period between the new
1910 and Halley's comet is really tempt
Ell 10 blame their tails for the hateful
soaking. Really il is not natural. Paris
has had il picturesquey. hut all f.urope
j. waterlogged. and Europe u lust the
spot for the seasons winds and met orc
logical conditions to dump down all THAT
cloud excess from the Atlantic.
And there will be- heat.
The comets tel is at a very hi2h tenn
pcratiire. SAYS Andre. ''TraVersine oar
.t1mos1iere AT enormous speed. il must
modify our temperature even though its
mass he slight.
But there is list one cardina! detail.
yet Unconditional. that may modify these
calculations, and either swing liz 1ri-
umphantlN out Of til" comets tail or
make Us only craze an edge. Ill 1851.
Not one at the astronomers has men
toned it.
Arc earth and comet on the same plane?
Interstellar space is not d fat page. like
the picture representing the inter
section Of the two orbits. with the sun.
comet and earth on a straight line May
Is.
Haley's comet might he coming. say.
on the level Of the ninth floor. while we
are moving. say on the level of the
ground floor. Indeed. there is no more
certainty that Hailey's comet has main
tained exactly a given plane than its old
course and schedue-which we know it
has not.
The giant Jupiter aud Saturn pail it
this way and that 10y their actions as
il passes their orbits Away ont on the
once-suprosed confines of our system
Uranus and Neptune. six and seventeen
years later. get in each a stronger pull
ON the slowing-down Wanderer. 1t was
Neptune who originally captured HALEY S
comet: but now Neptune himself is seen
to be perturbed: and the relative position
of a trRnsneptunian planet, never Yet
seen. but detected by mathematics. was
pointed out in January, 1889. by the
american Pickering. This unknown giant
gets in a last puli-who knows in what
direction ?-and Halley's comet turns
back to run the return gantlet to the sun
The path it travels this time is the
shortest in history. II has been invisible
only 73 years and 4 months, while its
period is put down between ~ and -
years.
No one doubts that sun. comet and
earth will be on a straight lire very close
10 Nav Is. but it is not necessary for
earth and comet to be on exactly the
same plane. Camille Flammarion. com
menting on the picture map from which
mine is copied. simply remarked: .Our
planet ought to pass within 14,O0.U"
miles of the comets nucleus. And he
added: I'VE shall be immerged i'll the
tail.
Doubtless. hut what if that distance
measures on slight diagonal? What If
the comet passes between the sun and
ourselves on a plane. say, 100000 miles
above that of our orbit Such a differ
ence would scarcely be appreciable in the
5000 600 miles which separate US from
the sun, even in the 14,Wo.GO1 miles
between us and the comets nucleus. All
the same. it would be great enough To