A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. n 



This preliminary verification of the views of Professor Weiss 

 was, however, not the most interesting circumstance. No 

 sooner had Klinkerfues, of Gottingen, determined the appar- 

 ent radiant point of the meteors, than he computed their orbit 

 about the sun, and finding that they really moved in a path 

 nearly coincident with that of Biela's comet, he proceeded to 

 reason upon their probable future course. He states that he 

 concluded that if the observed meteors radiated from the 

 point observed by him, they must be moving toward the op- 

 posite point of the sky, which was near the star Theta Cen- 

 tauri, in the southern heavens, and that, if looked for soon 

 enough, they might possibly be seen as a faint cloud in that 

 region. The idea was sufiiciently bold, yet so interesting 

 and novel that Professor Klinkerfues felt himself warranted 

 in sending to the director of the observatory at Madras the 

 following remarkable telegram : " Gottingen, November 30. 

 Biela touched Earth on the 27th. Search near Theta Cen- 

 tauri." 



With a faith equal to that of Galle, when he searched for and 

 found the j^lanet Neptune predicted by Le Verrier, Pogson 

 now turned his telescope upon the spot indicated, and, the 

 third time of searching, at last beheld the comet as a very 

 faint, difi'use spot of light. The observations of position made 

 by Pogson, and now received by mail, have been subjected 

 to a careful study by Oppolzer, of Vienna, and he concludes 

 that there is every reason to believe this to be one of the two 

 portions of Biela's comet, both of which have been lost to 

 telescopic sight for twenty years. The other portion will 

 very probably continue to elude the powers of theoretical 

 astronomy to trace its path and discover its whereabouts, 

 yet it is by no means improbable that it may be discovered 

 by some of the many busy comet-hunters. 



It will be seen that the history of Biela's comet may be 

 thus epitomized. It pursued an elliptic orbit, in obedience 

 to the law of gravitation, until 1845, when it was by some 

 unknown force divided into two portions. These were seen 

 in 1853, by which time they had separated several millions 

 of miles from each other. For twenty years they have not 

 been again seen. Meantime the study of the shooting-stars 

 taught us that the latter were often fragments or the minute 

 components of comets. 



