Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1910-06-22
ASTRONOMICAL FIGURES.
SOme Things that Will Interest and
Amaze the Untliinhing.
columbia State.

|
ing was foretold, and not on account
OF spectacular properties, has sot
well away from us, and its very name
will be known only to scientists of
another generation when it again APP
pears to the eyes of men.
This vagrant In the universe was
once last month so near that many
good people held their breath in
dread Of a collision, but it passed fif-
teen million miles from us, and each
day since has been putting more
than two million miles between itself
and the earth. The pace Of the comet
and the general direction will be
maintained for about 81 years, when
1t will make a wide turn. and head
once more in our direction in order
to complete the round trip--which
however, is oblong to exaggeration
on schedule time.
Where does the comet go, and why
can't we see 1T all the time? is a
question asked by those taking little
stock in the infinity of, space But
in truth few laymen pause to think
OF the incapacity Of the mind to COM
prehend limitlesS space and endless
| distance until a Halley's comet or
other phenomenon stirs us up so that
we peer out In the vastness. We can
not see 1T when 1t has left us sixty
OF seventy million miles behind for
| the same reason that the light of a
| tallow dip fades from view, even at
| night at a distance of mile or two.
The comets candle power is insig-
| nihcant compared with that of any
star Of magnitude. 1t will not be
seen because it does not give enough
| light.
IN It's three-quarter century round
OF travel Halley's comet moves
through a considerable part of the
universe, as conceived by the mind
of man. yet but a small part as meas
ured by figures that represent dist
ance. but are incomprehensible. Ey-
cry hour Of those years 1t travels a
distance greater &ian ten diameters
OF the earth, and when at the end
OF thirty-seven years 1t turns to come
In this direction it will be 29,S51,-
$4,000 miles away. AS the comet
turns, in 81 years, if it should ex-
plode with noise so great that the
wave sounds could reach the earth,
they would not get here for ABB
years, time several hundred years
greater than that from the laying of
the foundation Of the first Great Pyr-
amid to the present. But light is so
much quicker than sound in the an
limitation OF space, that we're the
comet visible to us when thirty bill
lion miles away, and were it to be
Snuifed out, we should cease to see
it about fOrty-three hours and forty
minutes after the snuning. Light
travels with such speed as to fall
only about 1000 miles short of belt
ing the globe eight times in one
second.
Halley's comet will be, therefore,
quite distant in the year l947, yet
how near when compared with some
OF the stars! There is Great Sirius,
for example, whose light CLEANS bril-
liantly. While it takes I3 hours and
40 minutes for light to flash from
the comet to the earth when the
comet is at its greatest distance. if
Sirius should be destroyed to-day, he
would shine on for us until some
tlme in the month of November,
1914. And Sirius is five or six times
nearer than some stars whose dist
ancc from the earth has been meas
urcd
If one is subject to headache it is
better not to plunge farther into the
Iathomless depths OF figures
stops carachc in two minutes:
toothache 0" pain of burn or scald in
five minutes; hoarsencss, one hour;
musclcache, two hours; sore throat,
welVc hourS-Dr. Thomas Eclectic
Oil, monarch over pain
+. II. HYATT FOR GOVERNOR.
NrII IL