The Story of the Heavens Part 22

But time cannot efface from the orbit of the comet the effect which the disturbance of Mercury has actually accomplished. The disturbed orbit is different from the undisturbed ellipse which the comet would have occupied had the influence of the sun alone determined its shape. We are able to calculate the movements of the comet as determined by the sun.

We can also calculate the effects arising from the disturbance produced by Mercury, provided we know the ma.s.s of the latter.

Though Mercury is one of the smallest of the planets, it is perhaps the most troublesome to the astronomer. It lies so close to the sun that it is seen but seldom in comparison with the other great planets. Its...o...b..t is very eccentric, and it experiences disturbances by the attraction of other bodies in a way not yet fully understood. A special difficulty has also been found in the attempt to place Mercury in the weighing scales.

We can weigh the whole earth, we can weigh the sun, the moon, and even Jupiter and other planets, but Mercury presents difficulties of a peculiar character. Le Verrier, however, succeeded in devising a method of weighing it. He demonstrated that our earth is attracted by this planet, and he showed how the amount of attraction may be disclosed by observations of the sun, so that, from an examination of the observations, he made an approximate determination of the ma.s.s of Mercury. Le Verrier's result indicated that the weight of the planet was about the fourteenth part of the weight of the earth. In other words, if our earth was placed in a balance, and fourteen globes, each equal to Mercury, were laid in the other, the scales would hang evenly. It was necessary that this result should be received with great caution. It depended upon a delicate interpretation of somewhat precarious measurements. It could only be regarded as of provisional value, to be discarded when a better one should be obtained.

The approach of Encke's comet to Mercury, and the elaborate investigations of Von Asten and Backlund, in which the observations of the body were discussed, have thrown much light on the subject; but, owing to a peculiarity in the motion of this comet, which we shall presently mention, the difficulties of this investigation are enormous.

Backlund's latest result is, that the sun is 9,700,000 times as heavy as Mercury, and he considers that this is worthy of great confidence. There is a considerable difference between this result (which makes the earth about thirty times as heavy as Mercury) and that of Le Verrier; and, on the other hand, Haerdtl has, from the motion of Winnecke's periodic comet, found a value of the ma.s.s of Mercury which is not very different from Le Verrier's. Mercury is, however, the only planet about the ma.s.s of which there is any serious uncertainty, and this must not make us doubt the accuracy of this delicate weighing-machine. Look at the orbit of Jupiter, to which Encke's comet approaches so nearly when it retreats from the sun. It will sometimes happen that Jupiter and the comet are in close proximity, and then the mighty planet seriously disturbs the pliable orbit of the comet. The path of the latter bears unmistakable traces of the Jupiter perturbations, as well as of the Mercury perturbations. It might seem a hopeless task to discriminate between the influences of the two planets, overshadowed as they both are by the supreme control of the sun, but contrivances of mathematical a.n.a.lysis are adequate to deal with the problem. They point out how much is due to Mercury, how much is due to Jupiter; and the wanderings of Encke's comet can thus be made to disclose the ma.s.s of Jupiter as well as that of Mercury. Here we have a means of testing the precision of our weighing appliances. The ma.s.s of Jupiter can be measured by his moons, in the way mentioned in a previous chapter. As the satellites revolve round and round the planet, they furnish a method of measuring his weight by the rapidity of their motion. They tell us that if the sun were placed in one scale of the celestial balance, it would take 1,047 bodies equal to Jupiter in the other to weigh him down. Hardly a trace of uncertainty clings to this determination, and it is therefore of great interest to test the theory of Encke's comet by seeing whether it gives an accordant result. The comparison has been made by Von Asten. Encke's comet tells us that the sun is 1,050 times as heavy as Jupiter; so the results are practically identical, and the accuracy of the indications of the comet are confirmed. But the calculation of the perturbations of Encke's comet is so extremely intricate that Asten's result is not of great value.

From the motion of Winnecke's periodic comet, Haerdtl has found that the sun is 1,04717 times as heavy as Jupiter, in perfect accordance with the best results derived from the attraction of Jupiter on his satellites and the other planets.

We have hitherto discussed the adventures of Encke's comet in cases where they throw light on questions otherwise more or less known to us.

We now approach a celebrated problem, on which Encke's comet is our only authority. Every 1,210 days that comet revolves completely around its...o...b..t, and returns again to the neighbourhood of the sun. The movements of the comet are, however, somewhat irregular. We have already explained how perturbations arise from Mercury and from Jupiter. Further disturbances arise from the attraction of the earth and of the other remaining planets; but all these can be allowed for, and then we are ent.i.tled to expect, if the law of gravitation be universally true, that the comet shall obey the calculations of mathematics. Encke's comet has not justified this antic.i.p.ation; at each revolution the period is getting steadily shorter! Each time the comet comes back to perihelion in two and a half hours less than on the former occasion. Two and a half hours is, no doubt, a small period in comparison with that of an entire revolution; but in the region of its path visible to us the comet is moving so quickly that its motion in two and a half hours is considerable. This irregularity cannot be overlooked, inasmuch as it has been confirmed by the returns during about twenty revolutions. It has sometimes been thought that the discrepancies might be attributed to some planetary perturbations omitted or not fully accounted for. The masterly a.n.a.lysis of Von Asten and Backlund has, however, disposed of this explanation. They have minutely studied the observations down to 1891, but only to confirm the reality of this diminution in the periodic time of Encke's comet.

An explanation of these irregularities was suggested by Encke long ago.

Let us briefly attempt to describe this memorable hypothesis. When we say that a body will move in an elliptic path around the sun in virtue of gravitation, it is always a.s.sumed that the body has a free course through s.p.a.ce. It is a.s.sumed that there is no friction, no air, or other source of disturbance. But suppose that this a.s.sumption should be incorrect; suppose that there really is some medium pervading s.p.a.ce which offers resistance to the comet in the same way as the air impedes the flight of a rifle bullet, what effect ought such a medium to produce? This is the idea which Encke put forward. Even if the greater part of s.p.a.ce be utterly void, so that the path of the filmy and almost spiritual comet is incapable of feeling resistance, yet in the neighbourhood of the sun it was supposed that there might be some medium of excessive tenuity capable of affecting so light a body. It can be demonstrated that a resisting medium such as we have supposed would lessen the size of the comet's path, and diminish the periodic time.

This hypothesis has, however, now been abandoned. It has always appeared strange that no other comet showed the least sign of being r.e.t.a.r.ded by the a.s.sumed resisting medium. But the labours of Backlund have now proved beyond a doubt that the acceleration of the motion of Encke's comet is not a constant one, and cannot be accounted for by a.s.suming a resisting medium distributed round the sun, no matter how we imagine this medium to be const.i.tuted with regard to density at different distances from the sun. Backlund found that the acceleration was fairly constant from 1819 to 1858; it commenced to decrease between 1858 and 1862, and continued to diminish till some time between 1868 and 1871, since which time it has remained fairly constant. He considers that the acceleration can only be produced by the comet encountering periodically a swarm of meteors, and if we could only observe the comet during its motion through the greater part of its...o...b..t we should be able to point out the locality where this encounter takes place.

We have selected the comets of Halley and of Encke as ill.u.s.trations of the cla.s.s of periodic comets, of which, indeed, they are the most remarkable members. Another very remarkable periodic comet is that of Biela, of which we shall have more to say in the next chapter. Of the much more numerous cla.s.s of non-periodic comets, examples in abundance may be cited. We shall mention a few which have appeared during the present century. There is first the splendid comet of 1843, which appeared suddenly in February of that year, and was so brilliant that it could be seen during full daylight. This comet followed a path which could not be certainly distinguished from a parabola, though there is no doubt that it might have been a very elongated ellipse. It is frequently impossible to decide a question of this kind, during the brief opportunities available for finding the place of the comet. We can only see the object during a very small arc of its...o...b..t, and even then it is not a very well-defined point which admits of being measured with the precision attainable in observations of a star or a planet. This comet of 1843 is, however, especially remarkable for the rapidity with which it moved, and for the close approach which it made to the sun. The heat to which it was exposed during its pa.s.sage around the sun must have been enormously greater than the heat which can be raised in our mightiest furnaces. If the materials had been agate or cornelian, or the most infusible substances known on the earth, they would have been fused and driven into vapour by the intensity of the sun's rays.

The great comet of 1858 was one of the celestial spectacles of modern times. It was first observed on June 2nd of that year by Donati, whose name the comet has subsequently borne; it was then merely a faint nebulous spot, and for about three months it pursued its way across the heavens without giving any indications of the splendour which it was so soon to attain. The comet had hardly become visible to the unaided eye at the end of August, and was then furnished with only a very small tail, but as it gradually drew nearer and nearer to the sun in September, it soon became invested with splendour. A tail of majestic proportions was quickly developed, and by the middle of October, when the maximum brightness was attained, its length extended over an arc of forty degrees. The beauty and interest of this comet were greatly enhanced by its favourable position in the sky at a season when the nights were sufficiently dark.

On the 22nd May, 1881, Mr. Tebb.u.t.t, of Windsor, in New South Wales, discovered a comet which speedily developed into one of the most interesting celestial objects seen by this generation. About the 22nd of June it became visible from these lat.i.tudes in the northern sky at midnight. Gradually it ascended higher and higher until it pa.s.sed around the pole. The nucleus of the comet was as bright as a star of the first magnitude, and its tail was about 20 long. On the 2nd of September it ceased to be visible to the unaided eye, but remained visible in telescopes until the following February. This was the first comet which was successfully photographed, and it may be remarked that comets possess very little actinic power. It has been estimated that moonlight possesses an intensity 300,000 times greater than that of a comet where the purposes of photography are concerned.

Another of the bodies of this cla.s.s which have received great and deserved attention was that discovered in the southern hemisphere early in September, 1882. It increased so much in brilliancy that it was seen in daylight by Mr. Common on the 17th of that month, while on the same day the astronomers at the Cape of Good Hope were fortunate enough to have observed the body actually approach the sun's limb, where it ceased to be visible. We know that the comet must have pa.s.sed between the earth and the sun, and it is very interesting to learn from the Cape observers that it was totally invisible when it was actually projected on the sun's disc. The following day it was again visible to the naked eye in full daylight, not far from the sun, and valuable spectroscopic observations were secured at Dunecht and Palermo. At that time the comet was rushing through the part of its...o...b..t closest to the sun, and about a week later it began to be visible in the morning before sunrise, near the eastern horizon, exhibiting a fine long tail. (_See_ Plate XVII.) The nucleus gradually lengthened until it broke into four separate pieces, lying in a straight line, while the comet's head became enveloped in a sort of faint, nebulous tube, pointing towards the sun.

Several small detached nebulous ma.s.ses became also visible, which travelled along with the comet, though not with the same velocity. The comet became invisible to the naked eye in February, and was last observed telescopically in South America on the 1st June, 1883.

There is a remarkable resemblance between the orbit of this comet and the orbits in which the comet of 1668, the great comet of 1843, and a great comet seen in 1880 in the southern hemisphere, travelled round the sun. In fact, these four comets moved along very nearly the same track and rushed round the sun within a couple of hundred thousand miles of the surface of the photosphere. It is also possible that the comet which, according to Aristotle, appeared in the year 372 B.C. followed the same orbit. And yet we cannot suppose that all these were apparitions of one and the same comet, as the observations of the comet of 1882 give the period of revolution of that body equal to about 772 years. It is not impossible that the comets of 1843 and 1880 are one and the same, but in both years the observations extend over too short a time to enable us to decide whether the orbit was a parabola or an ellipse. But as the comet of 1882 was in any case a distinct body, it seems more likely that we have here a family of comets approaching the sun from the same region of s.p.a.ce and pursuing almost the same course.

We know a few other instances of such resemblances between the orbits of distinct comets.

Of other interesting comets seen within the last few years we may mention one discovered by Mr. Holmes in London on the 6th November, 1892. It was then situated not far from the bright nebula in the constellation Andromeda, and like it was just visible to the naked eye.

The comet became gradually fainter and more diffused, but on the 16th January following it appeared suddenly with a central condensation, like a star of the eighth magnitude, surrounded by a small coma. Gradually it expanded again, and grew fainter, until it was last observed on the 6th April.[32] The orbit was found to be an ellipse more nearly circular than the orbit of any other known comet, the period being nearly seven years. Another comet of 1892 is remarkable as having been discovered by Professor Barnard, of the Lick Observatory, on a photograph of a region in Aquila; he was at once able to distinguish the comet from a nebula by its motion.

Since 1864 the light of every comet which has made its appearance has been a.n.a.lysed by the spectroscope. The slight surface-brightness of these bodies renders it necessary to open the slit of the spectroscope rather wide, and the dispersion employed cannot be very great, which again makes accurate measurements difficult. The spectrum of a comet is chiefly characterised by three bright bands shading gradually off towards the violet, and sharply defined on the side towards the red.

This appearance is caused by a large number of fine and close lines, whose intensity and distance apart decrease towards the violet. These three bands reveal the existence of hydrocarbon in comets.

The important _role_ which we thus find carbon playing in the const.i.tution of comets is especially striking when we reflect on the significance of the same element on the earth. We see it as the chief const.i.tuent of all vegetable life, we find it to be invariably present in animal life. It is an interesting fact that this element, of such transcendent importance on the earth, should now have been proved to be present in these wandering bodies. The hydrocarbon bands are, however, not always the only features visible in cometary spectra. In a comet seen in the spring months of 1882, Professor Copeland discovered that a new bright yellow line, coinciding in position with the D-line of sodium, had suddenly appeared, and it was subsequently, both by him and by other observers, seen beautifully double. In fact, sodium was so strongly represented in this comet, that both the head and the tail could be perfectly well seen in sodium light by merely opening the slit of the spectroscope very wide, just as a solar prominence may be seen in hydrogen light. The sodium line attained its greatest brilliance at the time when the comet was nearest to the sun, while the hydrocarbon bands were either invisible or very faint. The same connection between the intensity of the sodium line and the distance from the sun was noticed in the great September comet of 1882.

The spectrum of the great comet of 1882 was observed by Copeland and Lohse on the 18th September in daylight, and, in addition to the sodium line, they saw a number of other bright lines, which seemed to be due to iron vapour, while the only line of manganese visible at the temperature of a Bunsen burner was also seen. This very remarkable observation was made less than a day after the perihelion pa.s.sage, and ill.u.s.trates the wonderful activity in the interior of a comet when very close to the sun.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XVII.

THE COMET OF 1882,

AS SEEN FROM STREATHAM, NOV. 4TH, 4 A.M.

FROM A DRAWING BY T.E. KEY.]

In addition to the bright lines comets generally show a faint continuous spectrum, in which dark Fraunhofer lines can occasionally be distinguished. Of course, this shows that the continuous spectrum is to a great extent due to reflected sunlight, but there is no doubt that part of it is often due to light actually developed in the comets. This was certainly the case in the first comet of 1884, as a sudden outburst of light in this body was accompanied by a considerable increase of brightness of the continuous spectrum. A change in the relative brightness of the three hydrocarbon bands indicated a considerable rise of temperature, during the continuance of which the comet emitted white light.

As comets are much nearer to the earth than the stars, it will occasionally happen that the comet must arrive at a position directly between the earth and a star. There is quite a similar phenomenon in the movement of the moon. A star is frequently occulted in this way, and the observations of such phenomena are familiar to astronomers; but when a comet pa.s.ses in front of a star the circ.u.mstances are widely different.

The star is indeed seen nearly as well through the comet as it would be if the comet were entirely out of the way. This has often been noticed.

One of the most celebrated observations of this kind was made by the late Sir John Herschel on Biela's comet, which is one of the periodic cla.s.s, and will be alluded to in the next chapter. The ill.u.s.trious astronomer saw on one occasion this object pa.s.s over a star cl.u.s.ter. It consisted of excessively minute stars, which could only be seen by a powerful telescope, such as the one Sir John was using. The faintest haze or the merest trace of a cloud would have sufficed to hide all the stars. It was therefore with no little interest that the astronomer watched the progress of Biela's comet. Gradually the wanderer encroached on the group of stars, so that if it had any appreciable solidity the numerous twinkling points would have been completely screened. But what were the facts? Down to the most minute star in that cl.u.s.ter, down to the smallest point of light which the great telescope could show, every object in the group was distinctly seen to twinkle right through the ma.s.s of Biela's comet.

This was an important observation. We must recollect that the veil drawn between the cl.u.s.ter and the telescope was not a thin curtain; it was a volume of cometary substance many thousands of miles in thickness.

Contrast, then, the almost inconceivable tenuity of a comet with the clouds to which we are accustomed. A cloud a few hundred feet thick will hide not only the stars, but even the great sun himself. The lightest haze that ever floated in a summer sky would do more to screen the stars from our view than would one hundred thousand miles of such cometary material as was here interposed.

The great comet of Donati pa.s.sed over many stars which were visible distinctly through its tail. Among these stars was a very bright one--the well-known Arcturus. The comet, fortunately, happened to pa.s.s over Arcturus, and though nearly the densest part of the comet was interposed between the earth and the star, yet Arcturus twinkled on with undiminished l.u.s.tre through the thickness of this stupendous curtain.

Recent observations have, however, shown that stars in some cases experience change in l.u.s.tre when the denser part of the comet pa.s.ses over them. It is, indeed, difficult to imagine that a star would remain visible if the nucleus of a really large comet pa.s.sed over it; but it does not seem that an opportunity of testing this supposition has yet arisen.

As a comet contains transparent gaseous material we might expect that the place of a star would be deranged when the comet approached it. The refractive power of air is very considerable. When we look at the sunset, we see the sun appearing to pa.s.s below the horizon; yet the sun has actually sunk beneath the horizon before any part of its disk appears to have commenced its descent. The refractive power of the air bends the luminous rays round and shows the sun, though it is directly screened by the intervening obstacles. The refractive power of the material of comets has been carefully tested. A comet has been observed to approach two stars; one of which was seen through the comet, while the other could be observed directly. If the body had any appreciable quant.i.ty of gas in its composition the relative places of the two stars would be altered. This question has been more than once submitted to the test of actual measurement. It has sometimes been found that no appreciable change of position could be detected, and that accordingly in such cases the comet has no perceptible density. Careful measurements of the great comet in 1881 showed, however, that in the neighbourhood of the nucleus there was some refractive power, though quite insignificant in comparison with the refraction of our atmosphere.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE C.

COMET A 1892, 1. SWIFT.

_Photographed by E.E. Barnard, 7th April, 1892._]

From these considerations it will probably be at once admitted that the _ma.s.s_ of a comet must be indeed a very small quant.i.ty in comparison with its bulk. When we attempt actually to weigh the comet, our efforts have proved abortive. We have been able to weigh the mighty planets Jupiter and Saturn; we have been even able to weigh the vast sun himself; the law of gravitation has provided us with a stupendous weighing apparatus, which has been applied in all these cases with success, but the same methods applied to comets are speedily seen to be illusory. No weighing machinery known to the astronomer is delicate enough to determine the weight of a comet. All that we can accomplish in any circ.u.mstances is to weigh one heavenly body in comparison with another. Comets seem to be almost imponderable when estimated by such robust ma.s.ses as those of the earth, or any of the other great planets.

Of course, it will be understood that when we say the weight of a comet is inappreciable, we mean with regard to the other bodies of our system.

Perhaps no one now doubts that a great comet must really weigh tons; though whether those tons are to be reckoned in tens, in hundreds, in thousands, or in millions, the total seems quite insignificant when compared with the weight of a body like the earth.

The small ma.s.s of comets is also brought before us in a very striking way when we recall what has been said in the last chapter on the important subject of the planetary perturbations. We have there treated of the permanence of our system, and we have shown that this permanence depends upon certain laws which the planetary motions must invariably fulfil. The planets move nearly in circles, their orbits are all nearly in the same plane, and they all move in the same direction. The permanence of the system would be imperilled if any one of these conditions was not fulfilled. In that discussion we made no allusion to the comets. Yet they are members of our system, and they far outnumber the planets. The comets repudiate these rules of the road which the planets so rigorously obey. Their orbits are never like circles; they are, indeed, more usually parabolic, and thus differ as widely as possible from the circular path. Nor do the planes of the orbits of comets affect any particular aspect; they are inclined at all sorts of angles, and the directions in which they move seem to be mere matters of caprice. All these articles of the planetary convention are violated by comets, but yet our system lasts; it has lasted for countless ages, and seems destined to last for ages to come. The comets are attracted by the planets, and conversely, the comets must attract the planets, and must perturb their orbits to some extent; but to what extent? If comets moved in orbits subject to the same general laws which characterise planetary motion, then our argument would break down. The planets might experience considerable derangements from cometary attraction, and yet in the lapse of time those disturbances would neutralise each other, and the permanence of the system would be unaffected. But the case is very different when we deal with the actual cometary orbits. If comets could appreciably disturb planets, those disturbances would not neutralise each other, and in the lapse of time the system would be wrecked by a continuous acc.u.mulation of irregularities. The facts, however, show that the system has lived, and is living, notwithstanding comets; and hence we are forced to the conclusion that their ma.s.ses must be insignificant in comparison with those of the great planetary bodies.

These considerations exhibit the laws of universal gravitation and their relations to the permanence of our system in a very striking light. If we include the comets, we may say that the solar system includes many thousands of bodies, in orbits of all sizes, shapes, and positions, only agreeing in the fact that the sun occupies a focus common to all. The majority of these bodies are imponderable in comparison with planets, and their orbits are placed anyhow, so that, although they may suffer much from the perturbations of the other bodies, they can in no case inflict any appreciable disturbance. There are, however, a few great planets capable of producing vast disturbances; and if their orbits were not properly adjusted, chaos would sooner or later be the result. By the mutual adaptations of their orbits to a nearly circular form, to a nearly coincident plane, and to a uniformity of direction, a permanent truce has been effected among the great planets. They cannot now permanently disorganise each other, while the slight ma.s.s of the comets renders them incompetent to do so. The stability of the great planets is thus a.s.sured; but it is to be observed that there is no guarantee of stability for comets. Their eccentric and irregular paths may undergo the most enormous derangements; indeed, the history of astronomy contains many instances of the vicissitudes to which a cometary career is exposed.

Great comets appear in the heavens in the most diverse circ.u.mstances.

There is no part of the sky, no constellation or region, which is not liable to occasional visits from these mysterious bodies. There is no season of the year, no hour of the day or of the night when comets may not be seen above the horizon. In like manner, the size and aspect of the comets are of every character, from the dim spot just visible to an eye fortified by a mighty telescope, up to a gigantic and brilliant object, with a tail stretching across the heavens for a distance which is as far as from the horizon to the zenith. So also the direction of the tail of the comet seems at first to admit of every possible position: it may stand straight up in the heavens, as if the comet were about to plunge below the horizon; it may stream down from the head of the comet, as if the body had been shot up from below; it may slope to the right or to the left. Amid all this variety and seeming caprice, can we discover any feature common to the different phenomena? We shall find that there is a very remarkable law which the tails of comets obey--a law so true and satisfactory, that if we are given the place of a comet in the heavens, it is possible at once to point out in what direction the tail will lie.

A beautiful comet appears in summer in the northern sky. It is near midnight; we are gazing on the faintly luminous tail, which stands up straight and points towards the zenith; perhaps it may be curved a little or possibly curved a good deal, but still, on the whole, it is directed from the horizon to the zenith. We are not here referring to any particular comet. Every comet, large or small, that appears in the north must at midnight have its tail pointed up in a nearly vertical direction. This fact, which has been verified on numerous occasions, is a striking ill.u.s.tration of the law of direction of comets' tails. Think for one moment of the facts of the case. It is summer; the twilight at the north shows the position of the sun, and the tail of the comet points directly away from the twilight and away from the sun. Take another case. It is evening; the sun has set, the stars have begun to shine, and a long-tailed comet is seen. Let that comet be high or low, north or south, east or west, its tail invariably points _away_ from that point in the west where the departing sunlight still lingers.

Again, a comet is watched in the early morning, and if the eye be moved from the place where the first streak of dawn is appearing to the head of the comet, then along that direction, streaming away from the sun, is found the tail of the comet. This law is of still more general application. At any season, at any hour of the night, the tail of a comet is directed away from the sun.

More than three hundred years ago this fact in the movement of comets arrested the attention of those who pondered on the movements of the heavenly bodies. It is a fact patent to ordinary observation, it gives some degree of consistency to the mult.i.tudinous phenomena of comets, and it must be made the basis of our enquiries into the structure of the tails.

In the adjoining figure, Fig. 71, we show a portion of the parabolic orbit of a comet, and we also represent the position of the tail of the comet at various points of its path. It would be, perhaps, going too far to a.s.sert that throughout the whole vast journey of the comet, its tail must always be directed from the sun. In the first place, it must be recollected that we can only see the comet during that small part of its journey when it is approaching to or receding from the sun. It is also to be remembered that, while actually pa.s.sing round the sun, the brilliancy of the comet is so overpowered by the sun that the comet often becomes invisible, just as the stars are invisible in daylight.

Indeed, in certain cases, jets of cometary material are actually projected towards the sun.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 71.--The Tail of a Comet directed from the Sun.]

In a hasty consideration of the subject, it might be thought that as the comet was dashing along with enormous velocity the tail was merely streaming out behind, just as the shower of sparks from a rocket are strewn along the path which it follows. This would be an entirely erroneous a.n.a.logy; the comet is moving not through an atmosphere, but through open s.p.a.ce, where there is no medium sufficient to sweep the tail into the line of motion. Another very remarkable feature is the gradual growth of the tail as the comet approaches the sun. While the body is still at a great distance it has usually no perceptible tail, but as it draws in the tail gradually develops, and in some cases reaches stupendous dimensions. It is not to be supposed that this increase is a mere optical consequence of the diminution of distance. It can be shown that the growth of the tail takes place much more rapidly than it would be possible to explain in this way. We are thus led to connect the formation of the tail with the approach to the sun, and we are accordingly in the presence of an enigma without any a.n.a.logy among the other bodies of our system.

That the comet as a whole is attracted by the sun there can be no doubt whatever. The fact that the comet moves in an ellipse or in a parabola proves that the two bodies act and react on each other in obedience to the law of universal gravitation. But while this is true of the comet as a whole, it is no less certain that the tail of the comet is _repelled_ by the sun. It is impossible to speak with certainty as to how this comes about, but the facts of the case seem to point to an explanation of the following kind.

We have seen that the spectroscope has proved with certainty the presence of hydrocarbon and other gases in comets. But we are not to conclude from this that comets are merely ma.s.ses of gas moving through s.p.a.ce. Though the total quant.i.ty of matter in a comet, as we have seen, is exceedingly small, it is quite possible that the comet may consist of a number of widely scattered particles of appreciable density; indeed, we shall see in the next chapter, when describing the remarkable relationship between comets and meteors, that we have reason to believe this to be the case. We may therefore look on a comet as a swarm of tiny solid particles, each surrounded by gas.

When we watch a great comet approaching the sun the nucleus is first seen to become brighter and more clearly defined; at a later stage luminous matter appears to be projected from it towards the sun, often in the shape of a fan or a jet, which sometimes oscillates to and fro like a pendulum. In the head of Halley's comet, for instance, Bessel observed in October, 1835, that the jet in the course of eight hours swung through an angle of 36. On other occasions concentric arcs of light are formed round the nucleus, one after another, getting fainter as they travel further from the nucleus. Evidently the material of the fan or the arcs is repelled by the nucleus of the comet; but it is also repelled by the sun, and this latter repulsive force compels the luminous matter to overcome the attraction of gravitation, and to turn back all round the nucleus in the direction away from the sun. In this manner the tail is formed. (_See_ Plate XII.) The mathematical theory of the formation of comets' tails has been developed on the a.s.sumption that the matter which forms the tail is repelled both by the nucleus and by the sun. This investigation was first undertaken by the great astronomer Bessel, in his memoir on the appearance of Halley's comet in 1835, and it has since been considerably developed by Roche and the Russian astronomer Bredichin. Though we are, perhaps, hardly in a position to accept this theory as absolutely true, we can a.s.sert that it accounts well for the princ.i.p.al phenomena observed in the formation of comets'

tails.

Professor Bredichin has conducted his labours in the philosophical manner which has led to many other great discoveries in science. He has carefully collated the measurements and drawings of the tails of various comets. One result has been obtained from this preliminary part of his enquiry, which possesses a value that cannot be affected even if the ulterior portion of his labours should be found to require qualification. In the examination of the various tails, he observed that the curvilinear shapes of the outlines fall into one or other of three special types. In the first we have the straightest tails, which point almost directly away from the sun. In the second are cla.s.sed tails which, after starting away from the sun, are curved backwards from the direction towards which the comet is moving. In the third we find the appendage still more curved in towards the comet's path. It can be shown that the tails of comets can almost invariably be identified with one or other of these three types; and in cases where the comet exhibits two tails, as has sometimes happened, then they will be found to belong to two of the types.

The adjoining diagram (Fig. 72) gives a sketch of an imaginary comet furnished with tails of the three different types. The direction in which the comet is moving is shown by the arrow-head on the line pa.s.sing through the nucleus. Bredichin concludes that the straightest of the three tails, marked as Type I., is most probably due to the element hydrogen; the tails of the second form are due to the presence of some of the hydrocarbons in the body of the comet; while the small tails of the third type may be due to iron or to some other element with a high atomic weight. It will, of course, be understood that this diagram does not represent any actual comet.