Book contents
- Frontmatter
- EDITOR'S PREFACE
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS RELATIVE TO COMETS
- CHAPTER II COMETARY ASTRONOMY UP TO THE TIME OF NEWTON
- CHAPTER III THE MOTIONS AND ORBITS OF COMETS
- CHAPTER IV PERIODICAL COMETS
- SECTION I COMETS WHOSE RETURN HAS BEEN OBSERVED
- SECTION II HALLEY'S COMET
- SECTION III ENCKE'S COMET; OR, THE SHORT PERIOD COMET
- SECTION IV BIELA'S OR GAMBART'S COMET
- SECTION V FAYE'S COMET
- SECTION VI BRORSEN'S COMET
- SECTION VII D'ARREST'S COMET
- SECTION VIII TUTTLE'S COMET
- SECTION IX WINNECKE'S PERIODICAL COMET
- SECTION X TEMPEL'S SHORT PERIOD COMET
- CHAPTER V PERIODICAL COMETS
- CHAPTER VI THE WORLD OF COMETS AND COMETARY SYSTEMS
- CHAPTER VII PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF COMETS
- CHAPTER VIII PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF COMETS
- CHAPTER IX MASS AND DENSITY OF COMETS
- CHAPTER X THE LIGHT OF COMETS
- CHAPTER XI THEORY OF COMETARY PHENOMENA
- CHAPTER XII COMETS AND SHOOTING STARS
- CHAPTER XIII COMETS AND THE EARTH
- CHAPTER XIV PHYSICAL INFLUENCES OF COMETS
- CHAPTER XV SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT COMETS
- I ELLIPTIC ELEMENTS OF THE RECOGNISED PERIODICAL COMETS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
- II GENERAL CATALOGUE OF THE ORBITS OF COMETS
- Plate section
SECTION II - HALLEY'S COMET
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- EDITOR'S PREFACE
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS RELATIVE TO COMETS
- CHAPTER II COMETARY ASTRONOMY UP TO THE TIME OF NEWTON
- CHAPTER III THE MOTIONS AND ORBITS OF COMETS
- CHAPTER IV PERIODICAL COMETS
- SECTION I COMETS WHOSE RETURN HAS BEEN OBSERVED
- SECTION II HALLEY'S COMET
- SECTION III ENCKE'S COMET; OR, THE SHORT PERIOD COMET
- SECTION IV BIELA'S OR GAMBART'S COMET
- SECTION V FAYE'S COMET
- SECTION VI BRORSEN'S COMET
- SECTION VII D'ARREST'S COMET
- SECTION VIII TUTTLE'S COMET
- SECTION IX WINNECKE'S PERIODICAL COMET
- SECTION X TEMPEL'S SHORT PERIOD COMET
- CHAPTER V PERIODICAL COMETS
- CHAPTER VI THE WORLD OF COMETS AND COMETARY SYSTEMS
- CHAPTER VII PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF COMETS
- CHAPTER VIII PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF COMETS
- CHAPTER IX MASS AND DENSITY OF COMETS
- CHAPTER X THE LIGHT OF COMETS
- CHAPTER XI THEORY OF COMETARY PHENOMENA
- CHAPTER XII COMETS AND SHOOTING STARS
- CHAPTER XIII COMETS AND THE EARTH
- CHAPTER XIV PHYSICAL INFLUENCES OF COMETS
- CHAPTER XV SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT COMETS
- I ELLIPTIC ELEMENTS OF THE RECOGNISED PERIODICAL COMETS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
- II GENERAL CATALOGUE OF THE ORBITS OF COMETS
- Plate section
Summary
Discovery of the identity of the comets of 1682, 1607, and 1531; Halley announces the next return for the year 1758 – Clairaut undertakes the calculation of the disturbing influence exercised by Jupiter and Saturn upon the comet of 1682; collaboration of Lalande and Mdlle. Hortense Lepaute – The return of the comet to its perihelion is fixed for the middle of April 1759; the comet returns on the 13th of March – Return of Halley's comet in 1835; calculation of the perturbations by Damoiseau and Pontécoulant; progress of theory – The comet will return to its perihelion in May 1910
Let us recal the memorable words of Seneca in his Quœstiones Naturales: ‘ Why should we be surprised that comets, phenomena so seldom presented to the world, are for us not yet submitted to fixed laws, and that it is still unknown from whence come and where remain these bodies, whose return takes place only at immense intervals? … An age will come when that which is mysterious for us will have been made clear by time and by the accumulated studies of centuries… Some day there will arise a man who will demonstrate in what region of the heavens the comets take their way, why they journey so far apart from other planets, what their size, their nature.’ Eighteen centuries have elapsed, and not one man, but the accumulated efforts of many men have raised a corner of the veil spoken of by Seneca.
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- The World of Comets , pp. 100 - 108Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010