Shy Comet

Comets don't always oblige the comet fanciers. Last week a bright but furtive comet called 1947-N was already 100 million miles from the earth and rushing toward the dark outer fringe of the solar system at 35 miles a second. Only the southern hemisphere got a good look when it was near and bright.

Now the comet's head (probably a collection of small, meteorlike objects traveling together like a swarm of bees) had separated into three parts. Its tail (gases driven away from the head by pressure of the sun's light) had dissipated. Only astronomers with powerful telescopes could follow the departing visitor as it moved across the sky toward Capricorn.

During its whole visit, the comet acted as if it wanted to dodge human observation. Astronomer Leland E. Cunningham of the University of California, who worked out its orbit from data collected in Australia, reported that it slipped out of space on the far side of the sun. Sweeping around the sun within a whisker (9,000,000 miles), it stayed for the most part near the line between the sun and earth. It was therefore hard to see, like a fighter plane diving on its enemy "out of the sun." In the southern hemisphere it was visible for a short time just after the sun had set, showing almost as bright as Venus, with a tail 50 million miles long. For northern hemisphere lookers, it Was a daytime comet: it was there but no one couid see it.

If 1947-N had crossed northern skies at night, it would have been brighter than Halley's comet of 1910., and almost as bright as the comet 1910-A of the same year.

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