The Approach sf Halley's Comet
Historic Celestial Marvel, With
a Head as Large as the Moon,
Recently Sighted .at Heidelberg.
Germany.' Will Soon Be Visible to
he Naked Eye the World Over.
Has Traveled Thousands of Mil
lions of Miles In Its Journey
Toward the Sun Astronomical
Expert Tells Why Thete Is No
Collision Possible With It. 0
By FREDERIC CAMPBELL.
I President of the department of astrono
my. Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Scl
f nces.
jplFTER an absence of seventy,
(five years, that .monster of the
JpL skv Halley's comet, is close to
Its return. Already it is sight
ed and photographed after being
waited for for years 'and looked for for
months. On Sept. 11 Professor Wolff
of Heidelberg observatory, Germany,
got his great telescope on the. wan
dering son of the solar family and
wired all the principal observatories
to prepare to welcome the prodigal
-home.
They are few who- have access to
the great telescopes, but those who do
may now sight this celestial marvel in
advance of the rest of mankind, who
will have to wait till December to
gaze upon the wondrous spectacle.
Even without a telescope it is of In
terest to know just where the comet
now is. Most people who understand
anything about the heavens are famil
iar with the curiously shade and bril
liantly . studded winter constellation
Scnown as Orion. This now rises soon
lifter midnight and by 2 o'clock In
lhe morning is well above those mists
'that hang about the horizon. The
?tright whitish star at the west of the
rectangular figure Is Rlgel. The bright
reaoisn one at tne east is Beteiseux.
Xooking off to the east of Betelgeux
another bright star is seen. This Is
.Procyon, in the constellation Canis Mi
nor, a ongmer star man euuer is seen
.south wa rd that is, Sirius bright
st of all the fixed stars. Draw
imaginary lines connecting Betelgeux,
Procyon and Sirius and you have a
great equilateral triangle. One-third
the distance along the line from Be
telgeaux to Procyon stands the comet.
It will not "remain there, for it is mov-
the two crossing points about Nov. 1
and May 1. It will thus be seen that
we make a good escape, though a' little
narrow in the latter case, inasmuch
as there is a margin of only about a
month and a half at that point. But
even if the earth were at the crossing
points at the same time with the comet
nothing could -happen for the. reason
that the two bodies do" not travel in
the same plane or on the same level.
At the first crossing the comet goes
over and at the second it goes under
the earth, so that there is no. danger
of collision at either point any more
than there is. of collision between a
surface car and an elevated train on
the one hand or between a surface car
and a subway train on the other. It
has been calculated that the nearest
possible approach of the comet to the
earth would be 6,000,000 miles, but we
shall be millions of miles farther sep
arated than that even when nearest
Source of Comets Unknown.
It used to be believed that comets
were entirely Irresponsible bodies, not
under the. control of the same forces
that control the planets. It was not
perceived that the law of gravitation
has them in its grip, as well as earth.
Jupiter and Saturn, and that they fol
low definite and well known curves.
A comet originally , comes from we
know not where. Something has shot
it through infinite space, and it hap
pens to pass within the range of our
sun's gravitating power. At once it is
attracted toward the sun and compel
led to sweep down out of space and
around the sun before it is released.
Indeed, whether it shall be released Is
altogether a question. . If the curve on
which the comet approaches is what Is
known as a parabola or a hyperbola
it stands wide open ai the farther end,
and the comet, having paid us a single
0.
1 .:
Jilted -
Mm
4 7.
V
ORBIT OF HALLEY'S COMET.
ing with ever increasing speed as it
nears the sun, but there is where it
is now.
TraveleOlany Millions of Miles.
Now the question is raised, Where
las this comet been for seventy-five
years, and where does it come from
now? We answer that it has been
.away beyond the orbit of Neptune, ,the
most distant world of our solar family
-of which we have any knowledge. We
are staggered by the earth's distance
-of 93,000.000 miles from the sun, but
Halley's comet has been thirty-five
times as far as that and from that dis
tance is returning to a point only 65,--000,000
miles from the sun, nearer
than the planet Venus. At its great
est distance, known as "aphelion,' the
.sun would appear only as a bright star
-and the cold would be so intense that
rpossibly air. itself would freeze into
liquid form. At its nearest approach
to the sun that luminary would appear
immensely greater than seen from the
-arth, and the heat would dry up all
-water courses and destroy all life, both
'vegetable and animal.
Now, although the comet can be ac
tually seen over only a Very small
part of its course of thousands of mil
lions of miles, such is the nature of Its
.. -curve that the wonderful science of
mathematics enables us to track it per
fectly. Let us therefore follow, it in
. Imagination, just as we do a railway
n train by studying the time table. About
last January the comet crossed the or
;bit of Jupiter and was 450,000,000
miles from us. 'Next February it will
cross the orbit of Mars and will have
taken 400,000,000 miles from its dis
tance. About the last of March it is
expected to cross the orbit of the earth.
About ten days later it will cross the
orbit of Venus. It will, then swing"
abont the sun, reaching its perihelion,
or point of nearest approach to the sun,
May 10, according to one calculation,
though according to another it may be
.there some time In-April. It then be
gins to push back into space again,
and in so doing it again crosses the or-
' tiits of the planets about as follows:
-Venus, May 28; earth, June 19; Mars,
July 28; Jupiter, nearly a year later.
If the comet twice crosses the orbit
-of the earth it becomes a question of
the utmost interest whether our globe
Is liable to be run Into. It is reassur
ing to be told that the earth will be at
visit, sweeps back into space and never
again appears in our sky. But if it be
an ellipse it Is closed at both ends, and.
after a certain period of absence; back
it comes as certainly as tomorrow's
sunrise. ' ""
The truth is that all the planets,
including the earth, are traveling
about the sun," not on circles, but on
ellipses, but their paths . are only
slightly eccentric, while that of the
periodical comet is extremely so. A
boy's . round ; hoop when pressed out
of shape becomes an ellipse, and the
harder the pressure the more ellip
tlcal .it becomes. -Such is the path of
the periodical comet When the comet
is as near the sun as the earth is, if
its speed be more than twenty -six
miles a second it will' describe a para
bola .or a hyperbola and will never :
come back. If it be less than the
same It will describe an ellipse and
will return at regular intervals.
How Comets Are Captured.
The periodical comets are believed
to have been captured by some of the
planets. A comet comes Journeying
through space under the influence of
the sun, intending to pay us but a
single visit. It passes so near great
Jupiter, for example, that ' its speed
is slowed down below the critical
point It is thereby compelled to
change its orbit to an ellipse and stays
with us for the rest of its life. Nep
tune Is credited with capturing six
comets, including Halley's; Uranus
three, Saturn two, Jupiter about thir
ty. One reason for believing that
there is yet another undiscovered
planet beyond Neptune is that a cer
tain comet shows a curve which reach'
es out to a distant point where a
planet ought to be in order to account
for Its introduction into our system. ;
Haming of the Comet. ;
It has been ascertained that the
period of Halley's comet is in general -j
about seventy-five years, though it is
sometimes a little less and sometimes
several years more, the differences be
ing due to the influence of the planets
which it passes In going and coming.
This a therefore a historic comet and
by no means an upstart, for it has
tecently been traced back to more
than 200 years before Christ . .
Considering how young the - science
identify appearances of this same com
et In allthe following years: B. C. 240,
A. D. 451, 760, 1006, 1145, 1222, 1301,
1378, 1456, 1531, 1607, 1682, 1759, 1835,
1910. In 1066 William the Conqueror
was terrifying England, and the comet
was looked upon as an omen of terri
ble disaster. In 1456 all Europe was
moved to terror - by this enormous
sword of light held aloft nightly in the
sky, and the pope directed that to the
Ave Maria should be added the prayer,
"Lord, , save "us from the Turk, the
comet and the devil." It was at this
time that the noonday call to prayer
by the ringing of church bells was in
troduced, which has never been aban
doned. In 1759 the comet 'first came
back according to prediction of the -
great Sir Edmund Halley, the.friend of
Newton, and it henceforth took upon
itself his name. ' .
There always has been and still Is
much of mystery as to the nature of
comets. Where they came from no
one knows, but they are in the uni
verse journeying through space. When
first sighted a comet looks only like a
faint nebula changing its position
among the . fixed stars. As it draws
nearer the sun It becomes brighter and
begins to shoot out a tall. Tet nearer,
the head can be recognized as quite
distant from the tail and a bright core
at the center of the head called the
nucleus. Great comets like Halley's
are described as presenting a head as
large as the moon, shining with the
brightness of Venus and stretching out
the tail over one-third of the sky. Hal
ley's comet has shown a tall forty-five
degrees long, which - is equal to a pro
cession of- ninety full moons. As it
does not always appear the same, it is
likely on the present occasion to have
a length either greater or less. - -
Peril In Its Head.
The bead of a comet is the dangerous
part consisting probably of a mass of
particles like stones, held together by
their mutual gravitation. The increas
ing heat of the sun as it approaches that
body develops vapors, which envelop
tbe-nncleus and are driven back, into
space in the form of the tail. It is note
worthy that the tail always streams
away from the swj,-.going before the
head when the sun retires into space.
This, so long a mystery Is now be
lieved to be-due to the pressure of light
from the sun, so great a force that not'
less than 70,000 tons of it ever rest
upon, the earth's surface. The tail is
extremely thin, so that the faintest
stars can be seen through a million
miles of its thickness. The earth has
once or twice passed through a comet's
tail and suffered no harm. If, how
ever, there should occur a head-on col-'
lision with the nucleus it . would not
only be the end of the comet but might
seriously damage if not ruin the earth.
If nothing more, it would be likely to
introduce noxious gases into our at
mosphere, which would as swiftly pro
duce death as the descending fumes of
Mont Pelee. We have already shown
that no collision is possible with. Hal
ley's comet, nor as long as we believe
that human history is yet to be con
summated and that a divine plan lies
back of the universe can we indulge in
now antiquated fears. Nothing is less
probable, even astronomically, than a
cometary collision. However, there Is
some ground for believing that in that
strange curiosity of the plains, Coon
Butte, Ariz., we have the evidence that
just once a comet struck the earth, but
if so, whether before or after the ad
vent of man, we have no means of
knowing. ' '
Halley's comet will not be an appari
tion of a moment, like a meteor, nor
of a week or two. like the moon. On
its last appearance it was visible the
larger part of a year, and certainly for
months we shall have our sky, partly
at night and partly in the morning!
transformed by the presence of this
not unwelcome stranger. It will be
seen the world over. Peary at the
north pole and Shackleton at the south
pole would each be cheered by its
radiance, and seventy-five years hence
a very few very old men will trem
blingly point to the heavens and say
that in their youth they saw yonder
spectacle once before.
I
r
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COOK'S POLAR BEAR FIGHT.
North Pole Finder's Adventure In the
Arctic Regions.
On one occasion when he was pro
ceeding south after the discovery of
the north pole Dr. Frederick A. Cook
had an exciting adventure with a po
lar bear. He had drawn the canvas
boat upon the ice. and the Eskimos had
gone in search of game, leaving the
doctor alone and without weapons or
ammunition. The only food be had
left was the shoulder of a seal which
he was keeping for an emergency.
Dr. Cook, who was asleep in . the
boat, was suddenly awakened and saw
a few yards away a bear" sniffing
about Finally it pushed its nose in
inquisitive fashion into the boat where
Dr. Cook was lying. The explorer was
scared, out he seized a runner of a
sled and hit the bear. - This frightened
the animal, but it returned and was
about to attack when Dr. Cook shout
ed loudly and advanced upon it, flour
ishing the sled runner as he went.
This demonstration so Impressed the
animal that it turned tail and fled.
Later it was killed by the Eskimos.
After this Dr. Cook never remained
alone. ' '' , . x
Canary Colored Railroad Cars.
Canary yellow has been .adopted as
the standard color for the coaches, re
frigerator cars and .all other box cars
used in the passenger service on the
Panama railroad. Tests to aseertaln
the color best suited to withstand the
local climatic conditions, which are
unusually hard on exterior paints,
were made with the result that yellow
wnst ilpmnnstrntprl n nimprlnr lnarlnir
f astronomy is, think of being able, to quality over the otherc-olors tried.
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