Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-22
COULD A COMET HIT US?
By Frederic j. Haskin
VIZ ASHINGTON, March live are to
NV be visited this summer by Win
necke's comet. To many people

of the earth, or some other great change in
the worlds fortunes. The suPerstitions con-
nected with comets being repeated in
awe-struck Whispers
should regard the laW-abiding comet as por-
| tent displayed expressly as an advertisemen t
Of calamity, for all through history comets
have been linked with unusual happenings.
/ The fall of Troy was accompanied by the
appearance of a comet according to Virgil,
and the deaths of Constantine, Attila the
Hun, and Charlemagne were said to have
| oeen announced each by hairy star passing
across the sky. comet appeared the year
Napoleon was born, or perhaps to be more
accurate, Napoleon was born the year the
great comet of 1859 appeared.
An English magazine in 1912 scientifically
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 def
Gent and some fruits not only abundant
but deliciously ripe, such as figs, melons AID
wall fruit. Very few wasps appeared and
the flies became blind and disappeared early
in the season."
Even in 1910, before Halley's comet shot
past, people in this country sold their prop
Ferty and prepared for sudden death, while
more conservative alarmists who believed
that Halley's comet had some mysterious
message were every hand.
did little thoughtful reasoning, instead Of
flying off at tangent every time they hap
pen to learn that comet is passing few
million miles off.
| It is regarded as possible that / comet
might come into contact with the earth, The
comets that we greet by name every time
they whiz by are speeding round the sun as
the earth is The sun is pulling on them, but
they do not smash into it because the planets,
Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus or Neptune, also
| rt EpanS
comet in it's path. But If 1t loses some of
it's weight as it supposedly is doing all the
time, the comet travels more swiftly. and The
pull of gravitation is affected, that the
comets course changes somewhat.
Comet Carries Poison Gas
If this course changed very radically, in
time a comet might head on toward the
earth. What would happen then nobody
knows because nobody knows exactly what
comet is made Of We know something bout
the tail-that it is generally millions of miles
in length, sometimes over loo, 900, 900 miles.
The tail is supposed to contain poisonous gas,
but so vaporOus is this streamer Of light that
IL it came into contact with the earth very
little OF the poison would Withstand the re-
sistance of the earths atmosphere. In 1851
astronomers declared that the earth did &C
tually pass into the long vaporous tail of a,
comet to depth of $4,000 miles, but there
was no discomfort nor interruption to bust
! 1ess.
But if the comet itself, the nucleus, should
strike the EARTH it might easily mean the
end of us. A weather bureau expert has fig
! ured the possible effect, supposing the comet
head were similar in force to small iron
| ball about 845 miles in diameter and weigh
! ing 100000 tons. Such ball travelling
as comet and overtaking the earth would
strike with a velocity of less than seven
miles second. Comparing the effect Of this
impact with the effect of a shell fired from
a big naval gun, he says. the striking energy
Of the comet would be more than $500 OG0,-
! 900 tons-a force so immense that man can
not even dimly comprehend it.
But the jolt would be only one result of
the meeting of the earth with a comet. The
heat generated by the impact, he says, II ex-
pressed in calories would have to be written
81 053 followed by II ciphers, or 2,105, 800, =
600, 900, 900, 100000. If the entire earth
were covered with water to a depth of "a. s.
feet, this much heat would raise all that wa
| ter from freezing to the boiling point. The
chief consolation, if such catastrophe were
imminent, would be it's suddenness.
But while al this is considered possible,
the weather mai adds that the chances of a
comet actually striking little globe are
one to 281,O0O,000. Here again, the figure
is SO large that we do not get much of an
idea Of what it means. AragO, the astrono-
mer, explains it like this: The danger of
death to each individual would be exactly
equal to the danger he would incur suppos-
| ing that in urn containing PSI, 900 900
that he would be condemned to death should
he draw the white ball.
1t seems certain that none of the comets
whose ways astronomers have catalogued
could endanger the earth for thousands of
years. Automobiles and shot guns and live
wires much more reasonable cause for
fear than the comets.
This On, Probably Harmless
We can, therefore, gaze at Winnecke s
| comet secure in the belief that it has no in
! tention of jolting the earth out of space dur
ing the next few centuries anyway. Win
necke's comet is a good specimen of the
garden variety of comet. 1t is interesting
| to us because it will very probably be visible
to the naked eye sometime in June 1t has
not yet been picked up by the astronomers at
the naval o! jervatory here, although they
say that it could probably be seen thro Ugh q
telescope now If they knew where to look for
1t. When the comet has been located the
astronomers will be able to calculate the date
when it will be most clearly visible and where
it will be found II the HEAVIER
Comets are rapidly being robbed of their
romantic possibilities, but comparatively lit
| tie authentic information replaces the old
minded people as well as the CT edulous peas
antry could get all sorts of thrills out of a
comet. The celebrated surgeon Ambrose
Pare looked at the comet of 1928 and came
away with the following impression:
'Thts comet was so horrible, frightful
that some died of fear and others
fell sick. 1t appeared to be of excessive
length and was the color of blood. At the
summit of it was seen the figure of bent
arm, holding in it's hand a great sword, as
if about to rike. On both sides of the rays