Lost Comets and Their Story 



B\- J. F. Springt'i- 



PERHAPS the most mysterious of all the heavenly- 

 bodies are the comets. Some are ne\er seen 

 except with the telescope, or else the\- appear 

 as faint starlike bodies in the sky; others blaze forth, 

 grotesque and fantastic of figure and brilliant in 

 appearance, to excite and appal the ignorant. But 

 always, whether dim or glorious, the appearance lasts 

 but a moderate period at the most, and then the 

 visitor is gone. 



Astronomers make obser\ations with instruments 

 of precision and seek to follow the departed heavenly 

 body by prolonging the ascertained path of its 

 movement. And there has. been a good deal of 

 proved success in this work. For astronomers have 

 in the case of some comets found that the orbit was 

 a closed curve — an ellipse — and ha\e thus been able 

 to state in ad\ance the time when and the [jlace 

 where a return would occur. 



The most notable instance of a comet which 

 continually returns is that of Halle\'s Comet. This 

 remarkable body rushes through space in an 

 elongated ellipse of such size that three-quarters 

 of a century elapses between \isits. 



But there are comets which dazzle the sight 



for a period and then disapjjcar ne\cr to 



return. Still others begin as regular 



visitors and then fail to reappear. Those 



comets which dart in from the outer 



regions of the solar system for a 



tingle glance at the earth and its 



inhabitants we are content to let 



depart without any especial 



concern. But when a comet 



makes regular visits and 



then disappears irrecov- 



^£iEy>. 



The comets blaze forth 

 in fantastic glory occa- 

 sionally exciting both 

 curiosity and awe 



