Evening star., 1936-07-25
CURRENT COMETS
( FIRST SINCE 1910
PeItier's and Kaho's Only
:. Bodies Visible to Naked
= Eye Since Then.
This is the last of four stories on
y the nature OF commets.
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor.

Associated Press science Eoltog.
Z BOSTON, July 25.-Peltier's comet,
approachin the earth at a rate OF
IS miles per second, and Kaho's comet,
now retreating into space, are the
first such heavenly bodies visible to
the naked eye since 1910.
, They are the first comets to appear
simultaneously since 1852. That year
two celestial wanderers were seen only
100000 miles apart.
The current heavenly visitors have
stirred interest in previous comets.
Two were visible to the naked eye
in 1910. One was the January, or
johannesburg, comet, which did not
attract much attention.
The other was Halley's comet,
through whose tail the earth passed
in May that year. It was a giant,
red spectacle on the Western horizon
Just after sunset.
Pupil Made Prediction.
Halley's comet is named for pupil
of Newton's who made sensational
prediction when it first appeared in
1852.
He forecast its return in 1859 and
1t actually was seen within a month
of the predicted date. That difference
was accounted for by its passage close
TO Jupiter and Saturn.
- In 1855 it reappeared within two
Ior three days of the calculated time
and is due to return in 1885, allowing
VS. years for the swing around its
elliptical orbit.
The idea that heads of comets are
loose collections of stones and bits
of metal received much confirmation
from the visible breakup of famous
comet discovered just ITO years ago.
This was Bielas comet, first seen
In 1926 by an Austrian officer who
was an amateur astronomer, like
Leslie Peltier, the DelphoS, youth who
found the present comet. 1t returned
in 1882 and in 1889, showing it took
about seven years to circle its orbit.
In 1845 it came back as two comets,
10000 miles apart, moving side by
side. One was described as like a
phantom hand holding stick of phos-
phorus, the other as tiny. luminous
cloud. At their next visit in 1852
they were 100000 miles apart.
Shooting Stars Appeared.
They never were seen again, but in
their place appeared shower OF
shooting stars or meteorS on the date
of the comets expected return. They
came into the earth's atmosphere from
o quadrant in the heavens that would
have been the comets path.
Seven years later came a dense
swarm of meteorites. Many astrono-
mers concluded some unidentified
force had broken up the original
comet, and that its parts had spread
over the orbit.
These meteors now appear every
year in November in sparse numbers
They are called the Andromedids
from the constellation Andromeda, out
Of which they appear to come.
The spectroscope has identified
cyanogen gas, an organic compound
in comets. Organic originally meant
chemical compounds produced only by
living things. About century age
chemists discovered they could make
organic compounds in test tubes with
out the presence of life
The Morehouse comet in 1908 gave
signs that the mystery of a comets
tail might be explained as something
like the aurora. The brightness and
colors Of this tail changed rapidly in
q few hours time, much like the
aurora, which is explained as the
bombardment of gases by electrons
from the sun.