Identifier: popularsciencemo89newyuoft (find matches)
Title: Popular science monthly
Year: 1872 (1870s)
Authors:
Subjects: Science
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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contact withthe earth. He telegraphed to anotherastronomer his statement as to contactand suggested a search in a certaindefinitely named locality of the heavens.Here, the second astronomer actuallysaw some comet, but was unable becauseof unfavorable conditions to carry hi:,observations very far. It is uncertainwhether he saw Bielas Comet. If hedid, then he was the last obserx-ef cfthat remarkable hea\enly body. Enough happened, howe\er, in theforty years, 1832-1872, to lead us tothink that very probably Bielas Comethas disappeared forever as a comet andthat it is now a stream of comparati\elytiny bodies. This statement requiresexplanation. In the first place, BielasComet broke into two separate parts,each becoming a complete comet. Thetwo bodies traveled more or less closelytogether for a number of years. Thatthere were two comets instead of onewas first observed in 1846. While under comet which was soon ascertained to be observation by astronomers at this time, Halleys Famous Comet
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506 Popular Science Monthly the larger or more brilliant of the twowas seen to have three tails arranged atequal angular inter\als about it. One ofthese tails extcndeti over to the smallercomet and tormed some kind of connec-tion with it. There was in fact a bridgeof light between the two. The twocomets were again seen in 185, whenthey were still traveling along together.The interval between them, which wasless than 200,000 miles in 1846, had nowincreased to 1,270,000. The comet seemsnever to have been certainly seen since thisoccasion. But, what was certainly seenwas a great shower of shooting stars.These luminous meteors seemed toradiate from just about the point whej-ethe orbits of Bielas Comet and of ourearth cross each other. The date of thestar-shower was some twelve weeks laterthan the time when the comet itselfshould have made the crossing. Whatthese facts, when considered in the lightof still other information of an astronom-ical character, mean is probably this:After 1852, B

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