THE COMET AND THE EARTH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2456, 26 January 1893, Page 4

THE COMET AND THE EARTH.

Writing in the Daily Gi’aphic, Sir Robert Rail says in contemplating the possibility of a collision between the earth and a comet there is always one consolation. “ Our earth has lasted a long time without any casualty from any such occurrence. When we consider what the materials of a coment actually are, then we can see that to speak of a ‘ collision ’ with such a body is altogether a missuse of language. The greater part of a coment is of the most flmsy description. A light cloud in a summer sky is a robust and solid object compared with the texture of a comet. The most convincing proof of this is presented to us when, as not infrequently happens, we observe stars through the actual material of a comet. We have thus sometimes seen extremely faint stars through a curtain of cometary substance more than a hundred thousand miles in thickness. It is obvious that the sudden contact with a body of such a character as that thus indicated would be widely different from from what would be generally described as a collision. Nor can jt be doubted that on many occasions the earth has actually plunged into a comet, and emerged through it not only without an injury to the inhabitants, but even without their knowledge. There is excellent reason for the belief that in the midsummer of 1861 the earth passed right through the tail of the great comet which appeared in the year named. But except that one or two observers saw, or thought they saw, a somewhat unusual obscurity in the evening of the day in question, there was no evidence that an effect was produced on the earth.