El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-12-23
Will Come Sailing Across
Sky Next Spring; Is an
Up To Date Comet

= Unless something unexpected oc-
ours. the world Will witness next
~ spring a great heavenly phenom-
/ enon-a mighty comet blazing forth
night after night, with its tail sweep
/ ing an immense arc through the
| heavens, a source Of terror TO the super
stitious and OF intense interest TO all.
We may see again. as we did when
Halley's comet returned in 1910, Chinese
4 nlobs trying to brighten away the IN
canny visitor with flaming torches and
savage races falling on their knees in
| gibbering prayer to the supposed deity.
/ We NAV even have absurd scares
among usually well balanced people
( wh0 believe the tail of the comet will
sweep the surface Of our mother earth
with devastating effect The tenuOus
nature Of all comets renders them a
source of minor danger. as astrono-
mers agree. and we have little to fear
from the vast mass of nebulous mate
| rial even though enveloped in it
Up-tO-Dafe Comet.
Comet 3. 1916" is the name OF the
stranger 1t is so called because IL was
the second comet discovered this year
Prof Wolf. OF KOenigstuhl. detected the
rushing body's faint picture on a photo
graphic plate last April and proceeded
TO telegraph the news TO observatories
all over the world with great joy
The statement that the new comet
viii be a monster rests principally on
the fact that it was discovered when
fully 100000. 600 miles from the earth.
just within the orbit of the great planet
Jupiter.
All comets increase greatly in size
and brilliancy as they approach the sun
II such proves to be the case this time.
Comet B, 1915 should make great
impression
It is useless to go out and look for
the comet tonight. as it is now on the
other side of the sun, whose greater
luminance cOnceals IT, Earth. sun and
comet have Just passed conjunction. as
the state is called when the three bodies
are in line.
From now on until MAY. however,
conditions viii become Increasingly IA
vorable for observation In a lew
months the comet should be visible TO
the naked eye in parts OF the earth
Is some Traveller.
At present the comet is approaching
the earth at a rate Of more than mill
lion miles 4 day-but not IN q direct
line In the month OF December it's
distance from the earth viii decrease
by nearly 50.O00.000 miles, astronomers
calculate
1t is now situated in the sky just
north of the constellation Libra and I
about Is degrees northwest of the upper !
end Of the scorpion These constella-
tons are near the sun, appearing IN the I
early morning hours just preceding /
sunrise.
on January i the comet will still be I
more than 3CO.O00.O00 miles away Its I
perihelion passage. or nearest approach !
10 the sun. is due next June. The path Z
of the comet mas not yet been accu- {
rately plotted. but dozens Of astrOuo-
mers are working on IL with complex /
tables and extensive mathematical cal /
culations.
While comets which make a name for 4
themselves are few. the telescope re
cords a large number. Some of them ]
ar OLD fTfa win
These are called periodic comets. They 4.
arrive more or less on schedule time J
Their periods OF journey about the sun
are in some cases hundreds OF thou ]
great comet Of 1858 takes 2 900 years /
TO return TO the same spot after its !
journey over a great elongated ellipse- |
just as simple.
Astronomers have not decided whether (
all comets return TO the sun OF not.
Some of them appear to have parabolic (
orbits and fly off into space, never to I
see the solar system again But their (
supposed parabolic orbits may simply
be elliptical orbits of such great size
that the few observations which can be 3
elliptical character The arcs Of the
ellipse and the parabola are nearly the
same for short distances
But there are great numbers of
comets known to be permanent mem
bers of the solar system. They accom-
pany the sun and its planets in its on
ward journey through space. While the
orbits of the planets are nearly circu-
lar. all comets fly alone in greatly
drawn out ellipses.
Some planets are satellites of the Z
larger planets and fly about these cold
bodies instead OF around the sun If a
comet happens to come close to a major
planet it may be captured" and from
then on have its orbit permanently
changed to include the planet Jupiter I
Is known TO have quite u large family
Of ca ptured comets
STAYS Close to Home.
The comet with the shortest known (
period IS EncAe's. This comet never
gets farther from the sun than inside
the orbit of Jupiter HaUev's comet. /
which created the sensation of 1910
has the longest period of all the comets
classed as periodic. All the great. con-
sflcuous comets are OF the uon-periodic