THE NEW COMET.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1218, 29 August 1911, Page 5

THE NEW COMET.

TRAVELLING SOUTH-WEST. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Perth, August 28. Tho cornet recently ' observed is approximately thirty million miles distant, and travelling rapidly towards tho south-west. DISCOVERY AT LICK OBSERVATORY. Tho now comet, which possesses some interesting features, was discovered byMr'. Kiess, oi tho Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California, on July 7. It was sufficiently bright to bo visible in an i>pora glass, and had a short tail. It was seen in tho morning sky shortly before dawn, and was found to be moving south-west at a speed of one-third of a degree per day. Observations are now to hand from several places, wrote, the London "Times" on July 17, including Greenwich, and an orbit lias been computed by Dr. Kobold, of Kiel, who finds that it passed its nearest point to the sun on Juno 21, tho distance from tho sun being 71 million miles. The motion is in the opposite direction to that of the planets', and tho inclination to tho earth's orbit is 81 degrees. Although the distance from the sun is increasing, yet it. is approaching tho earth pretty rapidly, and will continue to do so till nearly the end of August, when it will be some 35 million miles distant. Tho orbit shows a strong resemblance to that of Comet 175)0, I, a small comet found by Miss Caroline Herschel in January, 1790. It may provo to bo a return of tho samo object; as soon as tho new comet has been under observation for a month or so it will be possiblo to decide the. question of itlcntity; mere resemblance of orbit, is not conclusive, as there aro several instances of families of-comets following each other along practically tho same orbit. Tho most rcmnrkablo case is that of the brilliant comets of 18'1-J, 1880, 1882, 1887. This is tho second cometary ta° v ory of the present year; tho first was \\oil 9 periodic comet, which was detected in June by its original discoverer. It is extremely faint and will remain so throughcut its present apparition. Lncke s comet is due to return to the sun s neighbourhood this month. It has, however, bean seen at every return since the year 1819, and it is hoped that this remarkable record will 'not be broken.