THE NEW COMET.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 October 1924, Page 6

THE NEW COMET.

PICKED UP IN HAWERA. • The new comet was picked up last flight by Mr Gawith, of Hawera, with his eigut-inch reflector. So far as is known this is the first time it has been picked up in New. Zealand or Australia. The comet was discovered by M. Finsler at Berlin on September 20 at 7 a.m. (New Zealand mean time). It is ail eighth magnitude comet, and a tail is visible in the telescope. Its position when seen by. Mr Gawith last' night was lohrs 20min right ascension and 3 degrees south declination. It was near the star Beta Librae, between this star and the ...red star Antares. The comet sets in about the same position as the sun and about, three hours later than the sun. It is not likely to be visible to 'the! naked eye. • - No name has been given to this comet,:* and it may be a new comer. Encke’s comet is due next month, and although comets are somewhat erratic and not always up to time-table, the present comet is not likely to be Encke’s. The comet has passed its perihelion, and is now on s-its journey away from the sun into outer space. Many comets belong to what is known as “Jupiter’s family,” that is, they move in elliptical orbits round Jupiter at one end of the ellipse and the sun at the other. These usually take four or five years for a revolution. Qthers belong to “Saturn’s family,” others belong to “Neptune’s family,” the outermost planet. These have a period of 100 years. It is generally considered that a comet takes about half the time to complete its revolution as the planet to which it is attached does to complete its revolution round the sun. For instance, Jupiter takes about 12 years to revolve round the sun, then the Jupiter family of comets take six years to complete their revolutions. As several comets are known whose periods _ are 150 years, 300 years, 500 years, it is considered, by Professor George Forbes that planets of the solar system exist outside Neptune with periods of ’ revolution round the sun of 300 years, another 600 years, and another of 1000 years. Some comets after rounding our sun vanish into outer space and never return. Comets frequently break up owing to a close approach to the sun or to a planet, and when the earth passes through them we get a brilliant display of meteors or “falling stars.” The meteors are composed of iron or other conglomerate, and usually burn up in our atmosphere, though sometimes they reach the ground. In the old superstitions days the appearance of a comet, was thought to betoken some dire calamity, but the fact that in 1910 we passed through the tail of Halley’s comet without disaster has served to reassure people. A rather remarkable feature of comets is that while the planets all go round the sun in the same direction, the comets; are divided in their allegiance, half going one way and half another. We are often told there is law and order in the universe, but this is not always so. With bodies going in reverse directions collisions must and do occur, and it is known that giant suns billions of times larger than our earth do collide. The only solid part of a comet'is the nucleus or head; the tail is usually composed, of some glowing gas as hydrogen. < There is a record of Halley’s comet since the year 240 B.C. It returns every 76 years, and will not again be seen till 1986. Professor Crommelin in “Splendour of the Heavens,” a recent and authoritative work, says that the return of Halley’s comet in A.D. 66 is probably the sword of fire mentioned by Josephus as suspended over Jerusalem shortly before the siege. Its return in 451 coincided with the defeat of At.tila, at Chalons, its appearance in 1066 at the time of the Norman Conquest is depicted on the Bayeux tapestry. The Chinese have the best an d. most reliable accounts of the 'apparitions of comets, extending hack to thousands of years B.C. Mr Gawith is to be congratulated on his interesting discovery.