Pueblo chieftain., 1921-03-20
COULD A COMET HIT U.s.?
BY Frederic ]. Haskin.

BY Frederic a. f1dSkH1.
Washington, D. c., March live
are to be. visited this summer by
Winnecke's comet. To many people
who do not realize that about five
comets are casually hailed by astron-
omers every year, the approach of this
of war famine, the end of the earth.
or some other great change in the
worlds fortunes. The superstitions
connected with comets are being re-
peated in awestruck whispers.
1t seems written in the stars that
men should regard the law-abiding
comet as a portent display expressly
| as an advertisement of calamity, for
all thru history comets . have been
linked with unusual happenings.
The fall of Troy was accompanied
| by tho appearance of a comet accord
| ing to Virgil, and the deaths of Con-
| stantine. Attla the Hun, and Charlie
magne were said to have been an
nounced each by a hairy star passing
across the sky. A comet appeared the
year Napoleon was born, OIL, perhaps
| to be more accurate, Napoleon was
| born tho year the great comet OF 1I69
! apeared.
| An English magazine in 1872 scienti-
calIy explained that thru the influence
of the comet of 1911. the winter fol-
mer cool, and very little appearance of
the sun to ripen the produce of the
| earth, yet the harvest was not defic-
| lent; and some fruits not only abun-
| dant, but deliciously ripe, such as figs.
| melons, and 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 property and prepared for sudden
death, while more conservative alarm
lists who believed that Halley's comet
had some mysterious message were on
every hand.
Science says 1t is about time that
people did little thoughtful reason
ing. instead of flying off at tangent
| every time they happen to learn that a
| comet is passing few million miles
on.
1t Is regarded as possible that a
comet might come in contact with the
earth. The comets that we greet by
speeding around 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 Ncp-
| tune. also exert a pull. This joint In
fluencc keeps the comet in its path.
But IL 1t loses some of its weight. as 1t
supposedly is doing all the time, the
comet travels more swiftly. and the
pull of gravitation is affected, SO that
tho comets course changes somewhat
Comet Carries Poison Gas
II this course changed very radical
| ly,; in time q comet might head on to-
! ward the earth. What would happen
then nobody knows. because. nobody
knows exactly what n comet Is made
OF. We know something about the tail
that 1t is generally millions OF miles
| in length, sometimes over 1OO,0Oo.OOC
miles. The tail is supposed to contain
poisonous gas. but SO vaporous is this
strcamcr of light that II 1t came into
contact with the earth very little OF
the poison would withstand the resist
ancc of the earth's atmosphere. In 1861
astronomers declared that the earth did
actually pass into the long vaporous
tail OF n comet to n depth of 21Soco
miles. but there was no discomfort nor
interruption to business.
A Weather Bureau expert has fig
urcd the possible effect, supposing the
comet head were similar in force to n
small iron ball about s4.5 miles in
diameter. and weighing 100000 tons.
Such "A ball travelling as a comet does
and ovcrtakins the earth would strike
with n velocity Of not less than seven
miles n second. Comparing tho effect OF
this impact with the effect OF n shell
tircd from n big naval gun. he says, the
striking energy OF the comet would be
more than $500. .Oo0.0oo tons-a force so
immense that man cannot even dimly
comprehend IT.
But the Jolt would be only one re-
suit of the meeting of the earth with
a comet. The heat generated by the i'm
pact, he says, IL expressed in calorics
would have to be written 21,053 fol-