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
- 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
- SECTION I COMETS WHICH HAVE APPROACHED NEAREST TO THE EARTH
- SECTION II COMETS AND THE END OF THE WORLD
- SECTION III MECHANICAL AND PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF A COLLISION WITH A COMET
- SECTION IV CONSEQUENCES OF A COLLISION BETWEEN A COMET AND THE EARTH ACCORDING TO THE MECHANICAL THEORY OF HEAT
- SECTION V THE COMET OF 1680, THE DELUGE, AND THE END OF THE WORLD
- SECTION VI PASSAGE OF THE EARTH THROUGH THE TAIL OF A COMET IN 1861
- 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 IV - CONSEQUENCES OF A COLLISION BETWEEN A COMET AND THE EARTH ACCORDING TO THE MECHANICAL THEORY OF HEAT
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
- 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
- SECTION I COMETS WHICH HAVE APPROACHED NEAREST TO THE EARTH
- SECTION II COMETS AND THE END OF THE WORLD
- SECTION III MECHANICAL AND PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF A COLLISION WITH A COMET
- SECTION IV CONSEQUENCES OF A COLLISION BETWEEN A COMET AND THE EARTH ACCORDING TO THE MECHANICAL THEORY OF HEAT
- SECTION V THE COMET OF 1680, THE DELUGE, AND THE END OF THE WORLD
- SECTION VI PASSAGE OF THE EARTH THROUGH THE TAIL OF A COMET IN 1861
- 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
The mathematicians and astronomers who have alluded to the effects of a collision between our earth and a comet, have more especially considered the event from a mechanical point of view ; the two bodies were for them simply two projectiles which, both animated with enormous velocities, could not fail to encounter each other with a violence dependent upon their respective masses, velocities, and directions of motion. They foresaw only the dislocation or rupture of two gigantic masses, a catastrophe which would inevitably cause the destruction of the human race, and of all living beings upon the surface of the earth.
Some philosophers, believing a comet to be an incandescent mass, or at least to have become heated to an intense degree during its passage in the near vicinity of the sun, have conceived that it would inevitably set fire to our globe; in which case we should perish both by the shock and by fire
But it was not then possible to view the phenomenon in its true light, since the great principle of the conversion of mechanical energy into heat had not at that time been discovered. Let us therefore continue the same hypothesis of a comet of solid nucleus, of a mass comparable to that of our globe, and coming into collision with the earth from any direction whatever.
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- The World of Comets , pp. 477 - 479Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1877