The Washington herald., 1913-03-02
Five of the Celestial Terrors of Human Race
to Appear During the Year 19l3-As
in the Past, Their Appearance
Is Cause of Dread.

and never return. The greater number
| or shooting phenomena seen are of this
| latter class. One of the highest author
tiles on astronomy is Prof. Asaph Hall.
of the U. s. Naval Observatory. who
was raised In the atmosphere of as
| tronomy. His father. Prof. Asaph Hail.
sr., occupied the same position with
Uncle Sam that his son now holds. In
earliest boyhood young Hall became an
earnest student of the science OF as
| tronomy. He is now fifty-three years
old. and for the past forty years has
studied the science, and is to-day ranked
| as one of the leading astronomers OF
the world. He explains comet In this
way:
Mr.. Halls Explanations.
You know all space is full OF nebu-
! lous material, probably the same ma
terial that the earth and sun Is made
of. only instead OF being gathered to-
gether in big mass, II is an assemplase
OF millions OF small particles There are
uncountable numbers of these particles
or focks in space, and when the sun
gets anywhere near them So that its at
traction becomes powerful enough 10
pull it into the solar system. We get the
.comet The suns attraction not only
pulls il into the solar system, but also
lights it up when 1t becomes visible To
the people on this earth.
Nov, to go farther. Many OF these
parabolic comets also become periodic
comets in another way. They probably
enter the solar system unknown wan
derers They enter the neighborhood OF
one Of the large planets when the Veioc-
ity at which 1t is travelling becomes
greatly changed by the attraction or
pulling power OF the planet and Is de-
creased. This attraction Of the planet
holds the comet In A certain position ana
il Will then circle around that planet
in an elliptical orbit. In other words.
It is very similar To a ball attached 10
the end of a string and twirled around
the finger The string takes the place
Of the attraction Of the planet. while
the velocity at which the ball Is trav-
cling holds 1t at the end of the string.
Another Interesting thing in connec-
tion with this phenomenon is the family
Of comets. 1t Is certain that tramp
comets cannot well originate within the
limits Of our solar system, hut must
have come from great distance. They
come within the attraction Of certain
planets. like Jupiter. for instance. and
the attraction of this planet holds them
In the way have already told You
about. TIL" short period comets. those
which have periods ranging from three
TO six years, are now recognized and
spoken Of as Jupter's family OF COM
cts. About thirty of these are known
already. of which fifteen have been seen
twic" or often"r-sOme of them as many
as a dozen times. Similarly Saturn has
two comets. Uranus has two one OF
which is Temples comet, which Is
closely connected with tn" November
metenrs. And finally, Neptune las a
family OF six. among which is the great
celebrated Hallry's comet and two 9TH
ers which have returned twice since
1883
Shooting stars are another unusually
interesting phenomenon Of the heavens.
They probably originate from comets
ny that / mean some Of the focks OF
comets get too near the sun when they
become heated up and burst into flames. ,
and separate into millions of parts. Thus
We See what Is commonly called shooting
stars. There is apparently some electri-
cal action going on between the sun and
comet. So that cometl shines partly |
by reflected sunlight and partly by the
heat OF the sun. As counter attrac-
ton there is some electric repulsion TAX
ing place which pulls the tail OF the
comet away from the sun, and the tail
is sometimes spread out over enormous
distances. Now after these rather loose |
ly assembled focks pass around the sun |
several times. they become spread out
and finally break up. and We again see
shooting stars.
The Source of MeteOrs.
Then We have what Is known as a |
meteor. When a comet crosses the Or
bit OF the earth some of its parts are |
caught in the atmosphere of the earth !
The atmosphere burns them up or turns |
them into solid, when they fall to the |
earth In the form OF heavy pieces of !
iron or stone. Some of them have been |
known to penetrate the crust of the |
earth thousands of feet on account Of |
the terrific velocity at which they were |
when they struck the ground |
At certain times of the year showers OF
stars appear IN the heavens. These prob |
ably come about through the fiocks of !
comets on their way through space, |
spreading out all the way round the !
earths orbit, and every year when the |
earth spins around to that particular |
spot again the particles come within the