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Article ON THE SUPPOSED INFLUENCE OE COMETS. ← Page 3 of 5 →
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On The Supposed Influence Oe Comets.
directly into the snn as it appeared about to do , swept round that luminary at the rate of 1 , 000 , 000 miles an hour , approaching its surface to withiu a twelfth part of the sun ' s diameter , and then receded , throwing out a train of light which extended to the enormous distance of 100 , 000 , 000 miles .
In 1682 another comet appeared , the orbit of which was calculated by Halley , after whom it has consequently been named . Its period is seventy-five years . There is every reason to believe that this was the comet which appeared shortly before the birth of Mithridates , B . C . 130 , at which time its splendour is said to have exceeded that of the sun , It also appeared in the years 248 , 324 , 1006 , 1399 , 1465 ,
1531 , and 1607 . Its appearance iii 1456 spread such consternation through Europe , that the reigning pontiff was 'induced to institute a form of prayer against its suppose course tended to increase the "fears of the ignorant and superstitieus . Halley predicted that the same comet would appear about the year 1758 Or the beginning of 1759 , and knowing that he should not live
to witness that event , he expressed a hope that " when the comet should return true to its appointed period , posterity would do him the justice to remember that this first prediction was made by an Englishman . " Some time before the period at which the comet had been announced to re-appear , great efforts' were made to determine its
coining with greater accuracy , by calculating the disturbing effects of some of the larger planets' on the comet in accelerating or retarding its progress , and some idea of the enormous labour undertaken with this view by the French astronomers , Clairant and Lalande , may be gathered from the following observations of Lalande : —
' Daring' six months , " says Lalande , we toiled from morning till night , sometimes even at meals , the consequence of which was that 1 contracted an illness which changed my constitution during the remainder of my life . The assistance rendered ' by Madame Lepante was such , that without her wc never should have dared to undertake the enormous labour , in which it was necessary to calculate the distance of each of the planets Jupiter and Saturn , from the comet , separately for every degree , for one hundred and fifty years . "
Such was the accuracy of these calculations that the comet reached its perihelion within nineteen clays of the predicted time , a very small error when we take into consideration the imperfect state ot analytical science at that time , and that the existence of two planets beyond the orbit of Saturn was unknown . This comet has since appeared in 1835 .
The principal ca ( use of alarm on the appearance of a comet has , in later ages , been the fear of a collision between it and the earth . Now in order that such an event shall happen , it is necessary in the first place that the comet shall come within the orbit of the earth ; secondly , that its orbit shall intersect the ecliptic ; and further , that both the earth and the comet shall arrrive at the point of intersec-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Supposed Influence Oe Comets.
directly into the snn as it appeared about to do , swept round that luminary at the rate of 1 , 000 , 000 miles an hour , approaching its surface to withiu a twelfth part of the sun ' s diameter , and then receded , throwing out a train of light which extended to the enormous distance of 100 , 000 , 000 miles .
In 1682 another comet appeared , the orbit of which was calculated by Halley , after whom it has consequently been named . Its period is seventy-five years . There is every reason to believe that this was the comet which appeared shortly before the birth of Mithridates , B . C . 130 , at which time its splendour is said to have exceeded that of the sun , It also appeared in the years 248 , 324 , 1006 , 1399 , 1465 ,
1531 , and 1607 . Its appearance iii 1456 spread such consternation through Europe , that the reigning pontiff was 'induced to institute a form of prayer against its suppose course tended to increase the "fears of the ignorant and superstitieus . Halley predicted that the same comet would appear about the year 1758 Or the beginning of 1759 , and knowing that he should not live
to witness that event , he expressed a hope that " when the comet should return true to its appointed period , posterity would do him the justice to remember that this first prediction was made by an Englishman . " Some time before the period at which the comet had been announced to re-appear , great efforts' were made to determine its
coining with greater accuracy , by calculating the disturbing effects of some of the larger planets' on the comet in accelerating or retarding its progress , and some idea of the enormous labour undertaken with this view by the French astronomers , Clairant and Lalande , may be gathered from the following observations of Lalande : —
' Daring' six months , " says Lalande , we toiled from morning till night , sometimes even at meals , the consequence of which was that 1 contracted an illness which changed my constitution during the remainder of my life . The assistance rendered ' by Madame Lepante was such , that without her wc never should have dared to undertake the enormous labour , in which it was necessary to calculate the distance of each of the planets Jupiter and Saturn , from the comet , separately for every degree , for one hundred and fifty years . "
Such was the accuracy of these calculations that the comet reached its perihelion within nineteen clays of the predicted time , a very small error when we take into consideration the imperfect state ot analytical science at that time , and that the existence of two planets beyond the orbit of Saturn was unknown . This comet has since appeared in 1835 .
The principal ca ( use of alarm on the appearance of a comet has , in later ages , been the fear of a collision between it and the earth . Now in order that such an event shall happen , it is necessary in the first place that the comet shall come within the orbit of the earth ; secondly , that its orbit shall intersect the ecliptic ; and further , that both the earth and the comet shall arrrive at the point of intersec-