The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-03-24
Frederic Haslxin's Letter
Could q Comet Hit Us?

Washington. D. c., March 1z.-Ne
are to ~ visited this summer BY
Winnecke's Gomez. To many go
pie Who do not realize that about
i've comets are casually hailed by
astronomers every year. the ap-
proach Of this comet has been taken
- significant dk war, famine. the
end Of the earth, or some other
great change in the worlds for
tunes. The superstitions connect
ed with comets are being repe3ted
in awestruck whispers.
It seems written in the stars thai
men should regard the law-abid-
ing comet as q portent displayed
expressly as an advertisement of
calamity, for all through history
comets have been linked With I'M
usual happenings.
The fall of Troy was accompan-
led by the appearance Of comet
according to Virgil, and the deaths
Of Constantine. Attila the Hun, and
CharlemaAge were said to have
been announced each by . hairy
star passing across the sky. A
comet appeared the year Napoleon
was born, or perhaps to be more
accurate, Napoleon was born the
year the great comet Of 1868 ap-
tpeared.
| An English magazine in 1872 sci
entifically explained that Through
the influence of the comet of 1911,
the winter following was very mild
|. the summer cool, and very
little appearance of the \sun to
ripen the produce of the earth, Yet
the harvest was not deficient; and
some fruits not only abundant, but
deliciously ripe. such as figs,
melons, and wall fruit. Very few
4 wasps appeared and the flies be-
came blind and disappeared early
in the season."
4 Even in 1910, before Halley's
comet shot past, people in this
4 country sold their property and
prepared for sudden death, while
more conservative alarmists who
believed that Hal1ey'0 comet had
some mysterious message were on
every hand.
i Science says it is about time that
people did little thoughtful rea-
soning, instead Of flying off at a
tangent every time they happen to
learn that comet is passing a few
million miles of.
i 1t is regarded as. possible that a
comet might come into contact
with the earth. The comets tina,
We greet by name every time they
whiz by are speeding round the
sun as the earth is. The sun is pull
ing on them. but they do not smash
into it because the planets, Jupi.
ter, Saturn and Uranus or Neptune
also exert pull. This joint in.
f1uence keeps the comet in its path
+ But if it loses some of its weight
) as it supposedly is doing all the
I time, the comet travels more swift
1 ly, and the pull of gravitation is af
e fected, so that the comets course
2 changes somewhat.
Comet Carries Poison Gas.
l If this course changed very radio.
2 ally, in time a comet might head or
} toward the earth. What would
, happen then nobody knows, be-
e cause nobody knows exactly what &
t comet is made of. We know some
D thing about the tall-that it is gen
: orally millions of miles in length
e sometimes over 100000 miles
S The tail is supposed to contain pois
: onous gas, but SO vaporous is thii
$ streamer of light that if it cam,
into contact with the earth very lit
e tie of the poison would withstand
: the resistance of the earth's atmos
< phere. In 1861 astronomers de
n clared that the earth did actual,
n pass into the long vaporous tail o
a a comet to depth of 273, 900 miles
= but there was no discomfort nor in
, terruption to business. Y
But if the comet itself, the nu
), cleus, should strike the earth,
might easily mean the end Of us. !
weather bureau expert has figure,
the possible effect, supposing tn
comet head were similar in fore
l to small iron ball about S4.5 mile
in diameter, and weighing 10000 90
tons. Such bali travelling as
q comet does and overtaking tn
earth would strike with a velocit,
), of not less than seven miles a sec
ond. Comparing the effect of thi
impact with the effect Of a shell
fired from big naval gun. he says
8 the striking energy of the come
s would be more than 100000, 90
: tons-a force SO immense that mai
4 cannot even dimly comprehend il