The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1910-03-25
The Mystery Of Comets.

With deepening mystery closing
in it is now very good time to
INIT that little indeed is known re :
g riding the true nature Of comets.
E cry explanation made since
science began is beset with difficulties.
All hypothesis so far made fail utter.
ly to account for all the facts. For
ages it has been known that come.
try streamers point away from the
san while coming in and also going
way. No explanation could be
nude until the year 1899, A. D.,
when it was discovered that radiant
energy waves press against any
object upon which they beat. All
adopted this fact as being the real
cause of the streamers Of comets.
Excessively minute particles in the
nucleus, it was taught, we're driven
to the rear by the pressure Of the
solar waves Of light. heat and any
other which may exist, but not yet
discovered.
But this plausible doctrine has
troubles Of its own. Here are facts
SO far declared about comets: They
come in from the interstellar deeps
toward the sun; they start with slow
motion, but this increases day by
day until finally, when the nearest
point t. the sun is reached, they
wheel around it with speeds beyond
all powers Of imagination. and dash
away to space depths with velocity
decreasing with the same rate Of ac-
CELEBRATION when coming into the
solar system. They all start to fall
on curve. either a parabola or
hyperbola, scarcely distinguishable
from a straight line for lengths Of
several million miles.
All comets would no doubt move
around the sun as focus once only,
never to return we're it not for the
planets. These disturb the motions
OF comets and draw them into ellipti-
cal orbits. Ellipses are closed curves;
hence comets on these must make
regular returns as members of the
suns family Of cosmical bodies.
Jupiter, owing to its huge mass, has
attracted many comets and changed !
their paths from the open to closed ,
curves and adopted them in his
family Of comets. The sun alone can
not adopt. A planet can also reject
instead Of adopt.
II a comet is coming around here
on parabola, it will go around the /
sun and fly away toward the same
direction in space whence it came.
Now, a slight increase in the speed
Of a parobolic comet will change its |
orbit into hyperbola; it will pass
around the sun and retire to infinite
ieeps in different direction whence /,
t came. If the incoming velocity is
decreased, the parabola will be
changed to an ellipse. The planets, I,
Hanging position all the time, can
either accelerate or retard.
The magnitude Of the heads Of
comets range from 10000 to 100,
200 miles in diameter. A few have
been seen with less diameter than
10000 miles, but many greater than
100, The nucleus Of the comet
If A. D. 1911 was 1900, 600 miles
n diameter, that of the earth being
',elo and the sun itself 500, 600.
With this colossal bulk the mass is
mail, for the nicely balanced motions
II the planets are not disturbed even $
" their near approach. a
The head Of the comet of 1880 was {
'Oo, coo miles wide, and Of 1858, :
)onati's, 25O,OOO. The present :
omet must be comparable to these
monsters, since its apparent magn:-
ade Of nucleus is greater than that
I the planet Venus, although it is
hree times farther away.
The giant comet Of l843, that
'onder Of the ages, actually plowed
trough the corona of the sun at a
istance Of only $4,000 miles from
lie appalling surface Of the solar disk.
IS velocity was more than $50 miles
er second. How a body practically
ithout mass, or at least a force of
strong enough to be de.