Ether (Space); Force and energy; Gravitation; Matter
The 1858 comet, known as Donati's Comet, was first seen by that
astronomer at Florence in June. It was invisible, however, to the naked
eye, as it only appeared through the telescope like a faint cloud of
light, gradually getting brighter and brighter. Toward the end of August
it began to show signs of developing a tail, and became visible to the
eye on August 29th. During September and October it greatly increased in
size and brilliancy, and was plainly visible in the western heavens.
After October 10th it was only visible in the southern hemisphere,
gradually decreasing in brightness. It was seen till March 1859, when it
disappeared, and will probably not return till the year 3858, as its
period of revolution is about 2000 years.
Donati's Comet passed between the earth and many stars, which could be
seen very distinctly through its tail. One of the stars was Arcturus,
and, though some of the densest parts of the comet passed over it, yet
the star could be seen all the time, thus conclusively proving that the
head and tail of a comet are only composed of gaseous matter, probably
condensed Aether, as suggested in Art. 111.
ART. 114. _Parts of a Comet._--A comet may be divided into three parts:
1st, Nucleus; 2nd, Head or Coma; and 3rd, Tail.
The nucleus is the central part of the head or coma, and is generally
the brightest part of the whole comet. On the theory that a comet is due
to the condensation of Aether, the nucleus would represent the first act
in the process of condensation, as there would have to be some centre of
condensation, and that centre would be represented by the nucleus.
Further, the process of condensation would assume a spherical form, as
the conception of our aetherial atom is that of a sphere or an oblate
spheroid. As the process of condensation went on, the layers that would
be produced would form a kind of envelope around the point of
condensation, with the result that the nucleus would ultimately consist
of a large mass of gaseous matter, made up of layer upon layer of
condensed Aether around some central point, which formed the nucleus.
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