The elements of astronomy; a textbook . Fig. 94. — Tebbutts Comet, 1881. (Common.) 278 COMETS. [§388 trated by Fig. 95. At least, this theory has the great advan-tage over all others which have been proposed, that it notonly accounts for the phenomena in a general way, but admitsof being worked out in detail and verified mathematically, by comparing the actual size andform of the comets tail, atdifferent points in the orbit,with that indicated by thetheory; and the accordance isgenerally very satisfactory. ^ To Sun. Fig. 95. — Formation of a Cornets Tail byMatter expelled from the Head. Accord
The elements of astronomy; a textbook . Fig. 94. — Tebbutts Comet, 1881. (Common.) 278 COMETS. [§388 trated by Fig. 95. At least, this theory has the great advan-tage over all others which have been proposed, that it notonly accounts for the phenomena in a general way, but admitsof being worked out in detail and verified mathematically, by comparing the actual size andform of the comets tail, atdifferent points in the orbit,with that indicated by thetheory; and the accordance isgenerally very satisfactory. ^ To Sun. Fig. 95. — Formation of a Cornets Tail byMatter expelled from the Head. According to this theory, thetail is simply an assemblage ofrepelled particles, each moving inits own hyperbolic orbit aroundthe sun, the separate particles hav-ing very little connection with oreffect upon each other, and beingalmost entirely emancipated fromthe control of the comets the force of the projection is seldom very great, all these orbitslie nearly in the plane of the comets orbit, and the result is that thetail is usually a sort of a flat, hollow, curved, horn-shaped cone, openat the large end, as represented by Fig. 96. 389. Curvature of the Tails andTails of Different Types. —The tail is curved, because the re-pelled particles after leaving thecomets head retain their originalmotion, so that they are arrangednot along a straight line drawnfrom the sun to the comet, buton a curve convex to the direc-tion of the comets motion, as shown in Fig. 97: but the stronger the repulsion the less
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