THE NEW COMET.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1917, Page 7

THE NEW COMET.

N QW VISIBLE IN EARLY MORNING. WONDERFUL PHENOMENON AT HAND. In the eastern sky early 011 Wednesday morning there was plainly visible to the naked eye, the new strange, comet that the, astronomers have become 30 Absorbingly interested in since it first floated into their line of vision (says the l.yttelton Times). The new comet is already well above the horizon.' It has the intensity of a clear white star, with a long tail pointing almost directly to tho zenith, with just win slightest inclination northwards. The tail does not appear to taper at all, a fact which signifies that the comet, as it approaches tho sun, will become a wonderful phenomenon, possibly outrivalling the great comet of 1910. The new comet is regarded as a total stranger. Its periodicity is not established, since it lias not so far been identified, and nobody can say when it last .visited the sun. It is supposed to have a period of anything up to thousands of years, and it ia hard to say what the appearance of it will be as it nears the sun, It is bound to be an object of absorbing interest from now onwards. As it approaches the sun it will be more clearly seen every morning. After it has circled the sun it will be visible in the evening sky. The comet is bound fo give rise to superstitious speculation regarding tho war. Comets have always been commonly regarded as possible portents of great events on the earth. The last visit of Halley's comet was euperstitiously associated with the passing of. King Edward, and history records many strange coincidences of notable ©vents occurring during the visit of a comet. The end of the war will dbubtless be associated in the superstitious mind with the visit «f the present great comet. Short duration comets have no tail. There were four of these expected in 1917: The Barnard comet in January, which visits the earth every 5.398 years; D'Arrest's comet in March, visiting the earth every 6.688 years; Brorsen's comet in June, eiery 5.450 years; and Brook's comet in November, a visitor every 7.1 years. These comets, however, aro not of any interest outside of astronomical circles. Comets differ in appearance and characteristics from either stars or planets. Generally speaking a comet consists of more or less a star-like nucleus, surrounded by a nebulous mass called the coma, and a tail. There probably is no solid nucleus. Cojpet spectra show that they shine partly by reflected light and partly by their own light. In size they are, immense objects, the coma often reaching 100,000 miles in diameter, while the tail may exceed 50,000,C00 miles in length. In no case, however, has the mass equalled that of the earth, indicating the extreme tenuity of its material, which, as indicated in the spoctra, consists of carbon and hydrogen compounds. It is possible that jomets were only visitors to our system and that those which now belong to us were captured by coming within the sphere of attraction of one of the larger planets. At any specified distance from the sun, there is a limiting velocity which, if the comet exceed, it will be driven away from the solar system; but should its velocity be less than the limits, the comet becomes » member of our system, and is known as a periodic comet. The following Me some of the greater periodic comet9i§f ' 1 !■■ Period in Next Years , Return Disc'ered Tuttle 13.7: ■' 1926-7 1790 Westphal 01.C ' 1975 1852 Pons-Brook 70.0 1955 1812 Olbers 72.7 1900 1815 Halley 7?,# 1987 128.C. Mr. D. B. M'Lepd, of Canterbury Col- j lege, states that the now comet, whiob is now known as the Wolf Comet, was discovered on April 3, 1910. At the beginning of April, in this year, it was thirty-three times brighter than when first dscoverea, and had increased in brightness threq" times from the beginning of February to the end of March, n March 22 the comet rose in right ascension 18br 57min 22sec, declination 2deg 40min N. On March 30, its right ascension was lOhr 16min 24sec, the declination beipg 3deg 55mln N. The comet will rise about 3 a.m. to-day, being due cast, well up in the sky about 5 a.m. The periodicity is unknown.