The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1907

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2015, 26 February 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1907

Thebe is not a great deal of information contained in that cablegram, dated Saturday last, about Marchottr s comet; but there is a great deal of alarming apprehension to be extracted from it by timid people who may be inclined to hastily conclude that at last the world is coming to an end, and wo have little more than a month to prepare for the catastrophe. Let us repeat the alarming statement!.

‘Professor Mettcueci, director of the Observatory oil Mount Vesuvius, declares that at the end of March the substanco of a comet discovered by Marcliet'ti will come into contact with the earth’s at-

mosphere, causing some danger.” Now isn’t that enough to make one feel quite excusably uneasy, for, if the prediction is correct, goodness knows what the suggestion may result in. It may be one of those appalling “impacts” which the latest scientific generalisation has clearly established, and which may result in the complete destruction of the greater portion of this little globe of ours, or it may merely tear a piece out of one side of it', in which case the other side would be made rather uncomfortable for a while, and the inhabitants thereof would wonder what was happening, while those on the “impacted” side would he swept into eternity and their bodies quickly disintegrated into atomic particles. In dealing with the theory of “Impact” some time ago we endeavored to explain these identical results and how they wore brought about, so it is not necessary to go into the details again, and all that we arc called upon to say on that view of the matter i.i reference to the cablegram under notice is that the prediction is scientifically feasible; Before permitting ourselves to become unduly alarmed, however, it is perhaps as well to sit down and reason the matter out in another way. If the prediction had been made regarding any one of the heavenly bodies not classified as comets, and we were sure that its orbital course had been as well defined as those of the stars usually are, we would have very grave grounds for alarm, and, in fact, would not think it worth while to bother about any more mundane speculations, for the accuracy vitli which these things have been determined, and the certainty with which they arrive at the points indicated by calculators, would make it exceedingly unwise to disregard their predicted arrivals. With comets, however, it is somewhat diffeicnt, and many of them have not so far lent themselves to the accuracy of orbital calculation that other bodies have. Still a number of tl-em have been determined with correctness because their periods have been comparatively short, those determined ranging between Ericko’s comet' with a period of 3.303 years, to Halley’s which is absent for nearly 76J years, and others are estimated to take hundreds of years to complete their long circuit in space. It i; therefore possible that Marchetti’s comet, which is calculated to cause us trouble by the end of March, may not reach us before March, 2000, Butof that wa nave lie knowledge, seeing that it does not appear* in the list of about- a hundred and sixty of them now before us that are classified as

periodic comets, that is, those that have been observed on more than one occasion and have therefore had their periods tho jnoro accurately verified. As wo havo no reason to think that Marcliotti’s comet is one of those we may still entertain tho consoling thought that eve shall not bo in his track or do anything to retard his progross through space whoir ho arrives in our vicinity. Solace may also bo gathered from the thought that, unlike the planets and fixed stars, comets are of more attenuated construction, and wo may actually pass through the tail of one without even becoming aware as ordinary individuals that wo had performed so interesting a feat, and it is, we boliovo, possible to oven encounter its nucleus without disastrous effects to our mundane habitat. Still, it may as the cablegram states, “cause somo danger” ; but it, all depends upon the density of the mass that wo are oxpccterl to encounter. Without spectroscopic observations that density cannot be determined, and its velocity too arc things which Professor Alottoucci might have informed us ol ; hut in any case impact with a comet, oven though it ho tho nucleus thereof, does not alarm us unduly in view of other facts which wo will endeavout to make clear. Fortunately Naturo in all her departments provides a protection for the life which she nurtures, and even this globe, of ours does not do its daily work with its jacket off. In the surrounding atmosphere it has a thick and strong armour which resists even the flight of a cannon ball, and thougli meteors pierce it and burrow into the earth in their descent sometimes, the.y frequently become diffused into their constituent gases in the attempt. What chance then could the gaseous nucleus of a comet have in trying to rend that coat unless indeed its velocity was such,,, and its surface so great as to push tho earth’s atmosphere before it to oscapo on either sido of tho globe from tho attacked snrfaco, and then there may ho troublo; but that is nothing more than a possibility-. Or it may bo that the terrific onrush of blazing gases of which tho nucleus is composed would sot up sudden decomposition and consequent explosion of tho atmosphere, in which case things would not be very comfortablo, and the violence of a hurricane would bo calmness itself compared to what would bo experienced in either case; but we can hardly conceive of two bodies travelling in elliptical or parabolical courses mooting each other on the same line as in a railway collision, and that fact alone reduces the possibility of the earth’s total envelopment in the catastrophe. Assuming then that the prediction is an accurate one, we have still the chance of escape if we are fortunate enough to be on the sido opposite to the threatened invasion whenever, or if ever it occurs. As to what should be done in the meantime to prepare for the accident we must refer you to an entirely different class of literature fiom newspaper articles, and to a somewhat differently constituted set ol expounders, and as for ourselves, we will simply continue to publish The Times until the premises are blown up.