This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 edition. Excerpt: ...it was announced by Professor Henderson, of Edinburgh, by a letter dated the 10th of February, 1844, that the comet recently found by M. Faye, and presumed to have a period of about seven years, was the missing object: " In several respects this comet is very remarkable; and it may afford room for ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 edition. Excerpt: ...it was announced by Professor Henderson, of Edinburgh, by a letter dated the 10th of February, 1844, that the comet recently found by M. Faye, and presumed to have a period of about seven years, was the missing object: " In several respects this comet is very remarkable; and it may afford room for speculation regarding its identity with the lost comet of 1770. The orbit resembles more nearly the elliptical orbits of the planets than those of the periodic comets yet known. In its aphelion and perihelion it approaches nearly the orbits of Jupiter and Mars; and must occasionally experience great perturbations from the former. It also passes within comparatively small distances of the orbits of the minor planets." M. Valz, of Nismes, in a paper read to the French Institute on the 22nd of April, 1844, has also recognised the comet of Faye as that of 1770; and though he abuses Jupiter as the tyrannical dominatorof our system and the overpowering transformer of planetary orbits, he shows such strong probabilities for the identity, that curiosity must be anxious for its predicted re-appearance in the spring of 1851. Arago remarks that the shock of a comet on the moon, would have disturbed the harmony existing between the motions of rotation and revolution, and consequently have caused the greater axis of the moon to be displaced from the line directed towards the centre of the earth. He also notices the legend stating that the Arcadians believed themselves older than the moon, a tradition which generated the belief of that satellite's having been a comet. The partisans of this opinion, he says, will have some difficulty in explaining why the moon has no atmosphere, or gaseous envelope: " if she is an old comet, what has she done...
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