Popular science monthly . 503 Lost Comets and Their Story B\- J. F. Springti- PERHAPS the most mysterious of all the heavenly-bodies are the comets. Some are ne\er seenexcept with the telescope, or else the\- appearas faint starlike bodies in the sky; others blaze forth,grotesque and fantastic of figure and brilliant inappearance, to excite and appal the ignorant. Butalways, whether dim or glorious, the appearance lastsbut a moderate period at the most, and then thevisitor is gone. Astronomers make obser\ations with instrumentsof precision and seek to follow the departed heavenlybody by prolon
Popular science monthly . 503 Lost Comets and Their Story B\- J. F. Springti- PERHAPS the most mysterious of all the heavenly-bodies are the comets. Some are ne\er seenexcept with the telescope, or else the\- appearas faint starlike bodies in the sky; others blaze forth,grotesque and fantastic of figure and brilliant inappearance, to excite and appal the ignorant. Butalways, whether dim or glorious, the appearance lastsbut a moderate period at the most, and then thevisitor is gone. Astronomers make obser\ations with instrumentsof precision and seek to follow the departed heavenlybody by prolonging the ascertained path of itsmovement. And there has. been a good deal ofproved success in this work. For astronomers havein the case of some comets found that the orbit wasa closed curve—an ellipse—and ha\e thus been ableto state in ad\ance the time when and the [jlacewhere a return would occur. The most notable instance of a comet whichcontinually returns is that of Halle\s Comet. Thisremarkable body rushes throu
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience, bookyear1872
