OUR PLANET IN DANGER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1045, 28 April 1882, Page 3

OUR PLANET IN DANGER.

The London correspondence of the New Zealand Times savs: -

Your readers will remember that some few years back Mr 11. A. Procter, F.R.A.S. visited the colonies, and delivered lectures on various scientific subjects, and was well received. This gentleman makes it his object to popularise science as some endeavour to popularise religion, and 1 must say with great success. For ray part 1 know of no reading more interesting than those delightful essays which he has published on all kinds of topics, though chiefly astrono mica). In one of these lately published he draws attention to a very serious oamier which unfortunately threatensoursolves and the whole solar sys era. 11 seems that the comet which appealed in ISSO is almost certainly one which has before appeared to the earth’s inhabitants, but at widely sundered intervals. These intervals, too, are irregular, and, as time goes on, rapidly shortenin ~ Thus, at one time the jieriod of the comet was probably over 000 years ; now it has dwindled down to ,’!7 years, and may shorten yet more. It is not absolutely positively proved that the comet which has thus appeared so curiously is the identical! v same body, but it is almost certain that it is so, and tlie only inference that can he drawn from this is that the comet is being rapidly drawn into the sun. When contact will take place is uncertain, but it must lie soon; say either in 17 or .'l7 years, and the question for us earth worms is, what will happen as the result of the collision ? It is now pretty well certain that the nucleus of any omet is but small and insignificant, but it is also tolerably well established that all have in their train enormous belts of meteorites, and tiie danger of the collision lies heroin. When, as is annually the case, the path of the earth’s orbit cuts the path of any of these meteoric bodies, the rate at which they are travelling is not sufficient for them often to pierce the earth’s atmosphere, but they merely ignite by friction, thus becoming visible to the eye At the moment of collision with any immense orb like the sun, however, the velocity will he immensely increased ; and the question is will the vast train of meteorites no hurled or not upon the sun’s surface? If they are, Mr Procter docs not hesitate to say that the heat evoked would be so intense that no living thing would be left to toll the tale, or any member of the great solar system. That such a contingency is possible we may learn from the manner in which, at different times, stars of the sixth, or lower magnitude, have been observed to suddenly blaze up with unusual brilliancy, and then, after continuing thus for some days, at length die down to their former condition. Now, as each of these stars is undoubtedly a sun, with attendant systems of worlds, like our own. Mr Procter says that during displays such as these every living thing such as we are acquainted with would infallibly be destroyed, and thus in our case would come to pass the prophetic warning that the “ heavens being on fire shall bo dissolved, and tiro elements shall melt with fervent heat. ” lam hound to say that since I have written the above lines Mr Procter iias stated that misinterpretation is put upon his meaning, that lie docs not bold alarmist views himself on the matter, believing, on the contrary, that the earth will last many millions of years yet, and that the greatest danger arises from a comet or other body falling upon us or the sun from interstellar space, but that such a contingency is of the remotest possible degree. Still it cannot i o denied that the experiment of a comet drop ping upon tiro sun is ono which has never yet been observed, but will l»o certainly watched for with a painful interest whenever it shows signs of happening.