Illustration of the course of Comets

 

 

 

Comets, or “blazing stars”[1], are 28,000 times hotter than Earth in summer or 2,000 times hotter than a red-hot iron. The bodies of comets are fixed and durable, or else they would be totally dissipated and consumed by the intense heat [2].

“The Antients thought them to be Meteors or Exhalations, set on fire in the middle Regions of the Air: But the modern Astronomers have found that they are large globular Bodies, moving in various Directions across the System; and that their Orbits are not circular, like those of the Planets, but very eliptical, or oval; and therefore, they are sometimes at a moderate Distance from us; at other Times, they ascend to vast Heights above Saturn, and so become invisible, till they return into our Part of the Heavens again" [3].

Comets are hard, dense, durable substances with tails of peculiar, rare, luminous matter; “Some of the Tails, near their Extremities, are so very fine and transparent that the fix’d Stars may be distinctly seen through them: And their Lengths become sometimes so amazing, as to take up more than 40 Degrees in the Heavens; which, considering their Distances at that Time, cannot measure less than 70 or 80 Millions of Miles" [4].