Word: cometted
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Astronomers believe that meteors are the debris of broken comets, and they shudder to think what would happen if a comet head itself, approaching at some 45 miles per second, were to crash into the earth. Astronomers' guesstimate of the chances: once in 100 million years (age of the earth: two billion years...
...grand Irish Mail chugging from Holyhead on the shores of the choppy Irish Sea. At 3 a.m. it was the glamorous, slightly mysterious Night Scot, running up past the misty green Lake District to salty Glasgow on the Clyde. In the evening it was the Comet from Manchester, pulling through the yards and spitting scornful clouds of steam. As the years and the big trains rolled by, Harley's dream that he would run one some day went up in the sooty smoke of Crewe. His passion for the glorious trains rotted away into consuming hatred...
Three other comets discovered by Friend, all confirmed by Harvard, were spotted in April 1939, November 1939 and January 1941. The third gave him his biggest thrill. It was a comet 1,500 times larger than the earth, traveling at some 2,000 miles a minute, and had the highest inclination of any comet on record: two degrees short of straight...
Since that evening last November, Friend's comet-of the seventh magnitude, just beyond naked eye visibility-has followed its looping course to perihelion (closest approach to the sun) and is zooming toward the outer reaches of the solar system. This week, as the comet emerges from behind the sun, South African astronomers who are on their toes may get a brief look-probably the last look from the earth...
Amateur's Dream. Shy, grizzled Astronomer Friend has been squinting insatiably at the heavens for some 50 years. He recalls being routed out of bed as a five-year-old for his first look at a comet. At eight he was marking the rise and set of stars and constellations on the beams of his father's barn...