A RETURNING COMET.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1341, 28 December 1883, Page 3

A RETURNING COMET.

(ifew IVJfc Sun, September 26.) The recogn : tion of the comet which -was discovered early in the u^e^ent month by Professor Brooks as the long expected ' comet of 1812 returning to visit once more the solar system, is an «vent which possesses much greater general interest than at first appears. After looking in vain for this comet for two or three years, and having several false alarms caused -by the unexpected appearance of other comets, the astronomers, it seems, forget the long looked for visitor, and for more than a fortnight after it 'had actually •come in sight they^ took it for a complete stranger. It is bearing down upon the sun ont of the northern leavens, and by midwinter will be seen •shining brilliantly in the evening sky, painly visible, of course,, to the naked .eye, but probably not presenting anything liko so grand an appearance as the great comet of last year. The verification which the return of this comet gives of the calculations of the astronomers presents a very striking instance of the knowledge that they have obtained of things that are going on beyond the earth. When this comet appeared in 1812 careful observations and computations were made to ascertain just what sort of a curve it made as it approached the sun, swung around ,it and again darted off into space. This curve was, of course, a portion of the -comet's orbit, but a very small portion, since no observations of this kind could be made except while thr comot was near enough to the sun to be visible in telescope. The astronomers measured this curve so accurately that by applying the laws of graviation tley were able to plot out the orbit of the comet -through its whole extent, and to say that, although when it disappeared the heavens had apparently swallowed it up, yet it could not escape from the 'Cdntrol of the sun, and would be back vagain in some seventy years. According to recent calculations, the qoraet was -due at perihelion in September, 1884. Now that it has been seen winging its way back, the astronomers are able to ssay that it will reach its perihelion some time iv January ' next, about eight months ahead of the calculated time. Bufc considering that ifrtakes the comet over seventy years to run the round of its orbit, and that the data they had to -work upon were slight, the prediction i -of the calculators is to be regarded as a remarkably accurate one. Chained by the laws of their being to this little revolving globe, they have been able, by the aid of mathematics, to follow the invisihle course of a body which, having -shone for a short time in the evening sky, disappeared entirely from sight, and wended its way several thousand million of miles into space. Years •before is had ceased to move away from the sun and the earth they were able say that it would turn and come back Again, and to-day we see the prediction verified, for the comet that nearly three quarters of a century ago faded -out of the sight of men is now again visible, rushing suuwai'd and re-illumi-nating its train as if in celebration of the return from its long journey out into the reilm of starlight.