Show DIAMETER OF COSSET COMET ONLY 2 OR 3 alea pons recent visitor not very large flagstaff ariz despite the excite ment it occasioned last summer when it came within miles ot of tilo the earth closer thin than any previous comet I 1 the pons comet had tile hie distinction ol of possessing the smal lesil nucleus that has ever been observed in such a body probably it was not more than two br or three miles in adlam leter eter dr V SL 11 Slip ber director direct oi of the observatory here ha has nn bouncel bounced no noun ced doctor tool took advantage off the close visit of pons Winne cUe to watch it carefully with the observe torys big retracting refracting telescope a lens two teet feet in diameter ne ile had lie says the best opportunity in years to make a measurement of the size of ft a comets nucleus the center which a s supposed to supply the rest of its alls material on most occasions lie he says the nucleus ot of tile the comet was lound found to be perfectly stellar 1 e very small and sharp at sue such times it was possible to distinguish the nucleus from stars only by its motion compared with stars even through the highest power telescope a star appears as a point of light first doctor compared the com cor notary nucleus with nearby stars then lie he took stars of similar brightness in another part pait of 0 the hemens hea ens in the region of the planet jupiter and compared them with the large moons of that planet As the size and distance of tile the jovian ro vian moons moong are known it was thus possible to td estimate the size of the nucleus its distance from the earth was also known and alius it was possible to got get a rough approximation of its dia diameter this lie found was not more than two or three miles other studies of the comet were made by doctor with the alj ol of it a spectroscope attached to the bi telescope in elds way by analyzing its light lie he found several very pecullar features it lias has been that comets are excited to great activity its as they get newatha near the sun but the studies of doctor Sli of rons pons I 1 as well as other comets seem to contradict these jews I 1 spectrum Is like suns the spectrum showed very strongly the same dark binds bands that are revealed in the spec spectrum tum of the sun this shows that the comets light consisted largely of reflected sunlight also in the band of spectrum there appeared rather weakly the bands that are associated with light A spray of light which projected from the nucleus toward tile lie sun gave off more tight light of it own than any other part of the comet besides having T its activity reduced by approach to the sun doctor Sll believes that its close approach to the earth may have also reduced the comets light in 1010 he said it was found that the light emissions front from hallers nal Hal leys comet were reduced as it approached the earth and then became more intense as it drew away previously it has beoo bean supposed that the earth has little influence on the activity of comets coming nea near r it it if this Is the case it would account for the fact that pons Win despite its close approach to the earth was much fainter than some astronomers had bad |