MEASUREMENTS OF A COMET.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 4459, 28 August 1889, Page 1

MEASUREMENTS OF A COMET.

From measurements made by Mr Barnard at the Liok Observatory, Ssvu Francisco, upon the comet discovered by him in September last, it appears that this comet, which is now ft long way past its perihelion, has lost all signs of tho tail which it had when nearest the son. No doubt tho effect of the sun's action upon the hoad of the comet has become so email at ita present distance, 253,000,000 miles, that the head is no longer forced to give out those streams of matter which showed to ua aa tho comet's tail. But the comet was subject to immense alraina and stress in passing that part of its orbit nearest the sari, and it is now showing the effect of tho forces in the following way Its body is evidently becoming disintegrated, and the fragments are Been to be streaming behind the comet in the form, of a tail directed not from but towards the sua. This mass of matter was measured by Mr Barnard ori July 16, and his mea« snrea show that its least possible length la 430,000 miles; arid its least possible diameter is 144,000 miles, so that the fragments which have already broken off from this comet amount to at least 70,000,000,000,000,000 cubic miles. The comet itself, which is 165,000,000 miles from the earth, is still fairly bright, and, : were it not for the fragments whioh are seen to follow, it would seem to be in a perfectly normal condition. As It is, we know it must have lost an immense quantity of its original substance.