HALLEY'S COMET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 393, 19 May 1910, Page 5

HALLEY'S COMET.

EARTH PASSES THROUGH ITS TAIL TO-DAY. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Professor Seager, interviewed this afternoon, said that to-morrow morning an exceptionally line view of the tail of Halley's comet would be visible, provided that weather conditions are favorable. The head, or nucleus, will not be visible, however, as it rises about the same time as the sun. We shall be passing through the tail during to-morrow afternoon or evening, and it is possible that part of it win be visible in the western sky to-morrow night after twilight. Professor Seagar says tihere should be a fine view of the comet in the western sky the following evening just aibove the horizon. It will be visible to the naked eye for some two or three weeks to come, and will get fainter and fainter. The moon will interfere to some extent with its luminosity, and it will be hardly as bright an abject as it has been in the morning sky. WHEN WE STRIKE IT. The tail of Hailev's comet switches the earth to-day. Aslceu bv a Dominion , representative as to the exact time when we shall enter the tail and emerge from I j it, the Rev. Dr. Kennedy, a great stu-1 dent of astronomy, says: "It is impossible to say exactly, because the motion [of the tail is somewhat irregular. We , shall pass through it during the night iof Thursday next, May 19. The head, or nucleus, will transit across the sun ■from 1.50 to 2.50 p.m. on Thursday, and the earth should, therefore, enter tne tail early in the evening. We shall be in the tail at least twelve hours. With the earth travelling 18.3 miles a second and the comet 26.5 miles a second in the opposite direction, we shall pass through at a velocity of nearly 45 miles la second, and as the thickness of the tail at that part is estimated iat tiw© millions of miles, you will see that we should be l'n it at least 12 hours." ■ What ipart of the ea<rth will be the first to enter the tail? "We cannot say, because we do not know the exact time when we shall encounter it, but within three minutes of the first contact, the whole of the earth will be enveloped. The tail will appear to come to us from the east." W'hat shall we see as we pass through the tail? _ "Nothing, except perhaps a glow of light in the heavens during the night, hut as the moon will be about full at the time, there is very little prospect of any unusual light of this kind being observed. There is a possibility of a number of meteors being seen, because al though the tail is mostly gas there may be a few very small particles of solid matter in it. They will be quite harmless, as t'liey iwiill be turned into vapor in passing through our atmosphere. There need be no fear of any hurricane or storm, because, while we shall go through the tail at great velocity, the density will be so slight that such an effect will be utterly out of the qiles- ■ tion. The gas is at a pressure of less ■than one-thousandth part of the pressure of the atmosphere. It is as tenuous as the most perfect vacuum one can make with an air pump. Now. you will agree that if I could throw a vacuum—not the vessel containing it, 'but only the vacuum—at you, it mould not hurt you, ■however hard 1 threw it. A blow from a comet's tail is Hike that. In fact, the comet's tail is the nearest thing to nothing that we 'have any .knowledge of. The atmosphere around tthe earth is like plate armor to ward it off."