THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1910 THE COMET SCARE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 986, 4 March 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1910 THE COMET SCARE.

[ The opinion of the well-known French astronomer, M. Canaille Flammarion, that there is possibly considerable danger in the approach of the Halley comet, which may gravely affect the earth on May 18th, is not shared by all astronomers, although the astronomers are slightly at variance with biologists and physiologists and chemists. M. Bigourdan, member of the Academy of Sciences, and one of the directors of the Observatory in Paris, thus answers a question put to him by the "Matin":—"lt is possible that the gaseous atmosphere of the comet will touch us when it passes, but we shall be no more upset than we were in 1819 and 186}." M. Baillaud, director of the Observatory, says: "We shall scarcely perceive the passage of the earth through the comet's tail. The gases that form the tail are so rarified, and are spread over such great distances, that it is possible that if there be uiy shock between the two atmospheres the <?omet will be the loser." \l. Deslanders, ot the Meudon Oblervatorv, quotes the earlier experences of this kind, and says that, iccordmg to exact calculation?, the >arth was toucbe.l by the tails of lifferent cornets in the. eighteenth entury. The chroniclers of the time lote the prevalence of fear. More reently, says M. Deslandres, a comet

almost touched the surface of Jupiter, but apparently there was no pertur- I bation. "Probably there will be a j shower of shooting stars in the . upper regions of the sky," says M. Deslandres. "It seems that the tails of certain comets, perhaps when they are on the decline, break up, and form meteors, which follow their directions and have the same orbit as the original comet." On the other hand, it is pointed out that the spectroscope has shown that there is a large quantity of cynamon gas in the atmosphere surrounding the comet, and different chemists, such as M. Dastre, state that, being practically without odour, the presence of the gas would not easily be perceived. A mixture of this gas with air would lead to certain poisoning. M. Arthur Gautier adds the cheerful information that in thejpresence of fire or a small electric spark a mixture of cynamon gas and air will explode.