BEARDED STARS

Evening Star, Issue 22460, 3 October 1936, Page 22

BEARDED STARS

- ■" COMETS WERE ONCE OMENS OF DISASTERS Hodirn day people arc not filled with the awe and trepidaton which were felt by their forefathers whenever a comet came close enough to he visible to the naked eye. In the days before the telescope, spectrum analysis, and astral photography, a comet was an object of terror, the" harbinger of all kinds of misfortunes. Deaths of riders, famines, plagued, wars, and pestilences—any of these might be expected after the appearance of a comet. The astrologers had a wide field in which to exercise their fertile imaginations. and seeing that misfortunes, ■Treat or small, are not altogether rare m this world, it was comparatively easy to point to one particular misfortune and attribute it to the comet. Fear attended the appearance of a comet oven np to a hundred years ago, but since tho days of modern astronomy comets have somewhat lost in prestige and originality. The telescope locates three or four comets every year, although the fine apparitions that attract general attention are rare enough. History, right back into times before the Christian era began, has many references to comets and the ills they brought with them. The groat comet of t-'fii.c. was asserted to be the soul of Crasar, who had been assassinated a few months previously. Comets were alwavs connected in the popular mind with kings and riders; when beggars die no comets are seen. Hut ali rulers wore not afraid of them.

“ CONCERNS ME -NOT/’ Vespasian, for instance, when his friends were alarmed at the appearance of a flaming comet, told them not to fear. “ This bearded star,” lie said, “ concerns me not. Rather does it threaten my neighbour the King of the I’artbians, since he is hairy and I am bald.” On the other band, T.ewis the Debonair was much alarmed by the comet which appeared in 8117. He tried to avert calamity by prayers, fasts, and the building of churches; but to no avail; he died—three 1 years later. This comet is famous in history, for it was none other than Halley’s. It was Halley’s comet which turned up again in 1066, when William of Normandy 1 was misguided enough to alter European history by winning the Battle of Hastings instead of staying at home and minding his own business. The Bayenx Tapestry shows this comet in the sky—a good omen for William, but a bad one for Harold. A few centuries later Halley’s Comet again figured in the news. This was in 1456, three years after the Turks had captured Constantinople, feeling was running high in Europe at the time, and the comet was regarded as a celestial omen indicating Divine anger. So Pope Calixtus resuscitated a prayer which had fallen into disuse, the Angelns, ana ordered the church bells to be rung each day at noon to call the faithful to prayer against the Turks and the comet. To the comet of 1500 was attributed the tempest that caused the death of Bartholomew Diaz, the cojebrated Portuguese navigator who discovered the Capo of Good Hope. In 1528 “ a great and gory sword ” appeared in the sky and seriously alarmed the world. In 1556 Charles V. was so alarmed by a comet that ho renounced jurisdiction or his vast estates and passed the rest of his days yi prayer and devotion. ]

Tlie story might be continued almost indefinitely. To the superstitious and credulous comets always have been, and still are. messengers of ill omen. What misfortunes the latest comet has been or will be responsible for remains to bo determined. But it is rather significant that it first swam into New Zealand’s ken just when the present Government introduced its first Budget. One of the intriguing points about comets is that when a new one appears or an old one returns there is always the possibility of it becoming really worth seeing. There have been comets so bright as to be visible in broad daylight ; comets with tails stretching right across the sky; comets with two or more tails—that of 1744 had six—and comets which have split into two. Kepler probably did not greatly exaggerate when he said that there are as many comets in the skies as there are fishes in the sea. These scouts of the sideral world constitute a regular army, but very few come close enough to the earth to be visible to the naked eye, although the telescope makes the acquaintance of hundreds. LAST CENTURY’S COMETS. The finest comets of last century were those of 1811, 1843. 1858, 1861, 1874, 1880, 1881, and 1882. The great comet of 1811 spread terror over Europe, notably m Russia, but the exceptionally good vintage of that year was attributed to this celestial visitor. By a curious coincidence the wine of the year 1858, when Donat’s comet flamed in the sky, was also remarkably fine and abundant. The comet of 184.3 was visible' in daylight and had a rectilinear tail 186,000,000 miles in length. Donat’s comet had a tail some 56,000,000 miles long, and the comets of 1861 and 1874 were nearly as magnificent. Halley’s comet, perhaps the best known of all, returns every 76 years. On its last ap-

pearance, about 25 years ago, it wo* disappointing in the Northern Hemisphere, although in southern latitude* it was a finer sight. BRIGHT NUCLEUS. The head of a comet consists of « bright nucleus surrounded by a nebulosity, and sometimes there is a luminous" appendix called the tail, although by no means always. The present comet has a particularly bright nucleus. Many people are under the impression that a comet’s tail follows it as it careers on its joy ride through space—that comet* carry their tails behind them like BoPeep’s sheep. As a matter of fact, they do not. A comet’s tail always points away from the sun, regardless of the direction in which the comet may be travelling. The end of the world has been predicted more than once to be imminent owing to collision with a comet. As a matter of fact, at least twice has the earth passed through the tail of a comet with no dire results, In 1832 the earth missed a comet by only 30 j a y S —a matter of 50,000,000 miles or so. But a collision with a comet is almost an impossibility.