| Show CHANCE FOR A COLLISION timorous people hardly got get fairly over one soars as to the immediate ending of the world on a day aasc cutely figured out by science 12 the stars stare or some other agency when along alone cornea comes another prediction from which we are told in the most moat wine and so aal aol emu manner there to ia no possibility of escape and in the accuracy of which the author tells tella us ua there can be no particle of doubt the very latest ot of these dreadful calculations emanates eman atea from prof falb of vienne and according accord log to the literary digest he be stakes a reputation already well established through having startled the world with correct predictions of various earthquakes earthquake el cyclones and other dire events upon the declaration that the destruction of the esith eaith by fire as the prop prophesies hentes of old eld have foretold it will surely take place november 1899 this great conflagration and winding up the austrian professor says will be kindled by the collision of our earth with a comet and the scientists appear to agree that while there la is possibility of aoh collision the greatness of the danger is scarcely such as to frighten fright eu the timid to this thin clan dr klein a german savant offers reasoning that will be huoh more comforting than that of his bis scientific neighbor he say saje if we suppose the nucleus of a comet to be a quarter quaner of the size of our earth there is only one chance in millions mil liona that we will run against one of these bodies the number of comets which pass through our oar solar system varies between ten and twenty under these circumstances the earth should collide with a comet about once in two million years if the earth collided with wilh a comet years ago it is in of course not very likely that a similar familar accident will take place within the next million hearp but this does not remove the possibility as the inhabitants of jupiter must have learned in 1886 when a comet bumped up against their planet the comet got the worst of it for it was torn to pieces taken for granted that the nucleus of a comet to is solid then a collision would be followed loll owed by consequences so 80 awful that our fancy could not assist us no to realize it laplace drew attention to the fact that a collision would change the position of the earth and the length of lime lima necessary for its ro aaion the sea would then rush towards the new equator and every living being would perish laplace however was unacquainted fainted with an important physical law he did not know that the force expended in moving ponderous masses is upon cessation of the movel movement converted into heat according to this law the collision of our earth with a comet the size of our moon would convert both bodies into vapor the question are the comets solid is therefore of some importance many astronomers do not believe that they are solid at all but granted that they bey are the addition of a mass of carbonic acid gas such as they undoubtedly contain would necessarily destroy all organic life upon our planet the tail of a comet however la Is composed of such anoh small particles of matter that our atmosphere undoubtedly to la much more densely laden the earth has pawed passed more than once through the tail of a comet without the slightest atmospheric changes when the earth op approaches roaches the head of a comet the event to la generally marked b by a shower of meteors a very beautiful at but harmless phenomenon he concludes that those theories which assign to the earth to la Us its present form an almost eternal existence are contrary to the known laws lawa of nature and ridiculous but he classes as equally asexually ridiculous the assertion that the earth will be destroyed by a comet nov 18 1899 for even it if all the foregoing dangers be admitted the path of the known comets have not yet been determined with sufficient accuracy to warrant such a prediction |
