"Perihelium" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... came up from the south, and presently returned thither. It was, indeed, only seen during its return, having, like the comet of 1668, been only discovered a day or two after perihelion passage. Astronomers soon began to notice a curious resemblance between the orbits of the two comets. Remembering the comparative roughness of the observations made in 1668, it may be said that the two comets moved ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 633, February 18, 1888 • Various
... destiny of an immortal soul, after its transition into the other world, must be either unending progress towards infinite perfection, or the reaching of its perihelion at last and then revolving in uninterrupted fruition. In the former case, pursuing an infinite aim, with each degree of its attainment the flying goal still recedes. In the latter case, it will in due season touch its bound ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger
... for untold ages; can he not become the butterfly?" "Since we have found out how to straighten the axis," said Deepwaters, "might we not go one better, and improve the orbit as well?—increase the difference between aphelion and perihelion, and give those that still like a changing climate a chance, while incidentally we should see more of the world—I mean the solar system—and, by enlarging the parallax, be able to measure the distance of a greater number ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds • J. J. Astor
... atmospheric disturbance. But the recent discovery that a number of comets are associated with meteoric matter, travelling in nearly the same orbits, suggests the inquiry whether an enormous meteorite following in the comet's train, and having a somewhat less perihelion distance, may not have been precipitated upon the sun, thus producing the great disturbance observed so shortly after the ...
— Myths and Marvels of Astronomy • Richard A. Proctor
... sub-editor. "Column and quarter," comes answer from the head of the table, and the cutting begins. Another sub-editor pieces together an interview about the approaching comet. "Keep comet to three sticks," comes the order, and the comet's perihelion is abbreviated. Another guts a blue-book on prison statistics as savagely as though he were disembowelling ...
— Essays in Rebellion • Henry W. Nevinson
... the elliptical orbit, stand perpendicularly to the orbit of the nucleus. That is, the extremity of the tail farthest from the sun, in addition to its onward motion, has acquired a lateral motion that has lifted it 50,000,000 miles in the first day of its perihelion. The velocity of the extremity has been vastly accelerated over that of the nucleus, and it has moreover a sheer lift above the orbit of the nucleus. Now this lift is in opposition to gravity; neither is it in consequence of any previous momentum, for its velocity is accelerated and its previous ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 • Various
... declination varies from about 24 degrees above to 24 degrees below the equator. The sun is nearest to the Southern Ocean, where the tides are generated, when it is in its southern declination, and furthest away when in the north, but the sun is actually nearest to the earth on December 31 (perihelion) and furthest away on July I (aphelion), the difference between the maximum and minimum distance being one-thirtieth ...
— The Sewerage of Sea Coast Towns • Henry C. Adams
... that comes in from space is cold, even if it's been out only a few minutes, and that hunk of stuff has been out for nobody knows how many million years. It didn't get much heat from the sun except at perihelion, you know, so it's probably somewhere around minus two hundred and sixty degrees now. I'll have to throw a heater on it for half an hour before we can touch it. And since this is more or less new stuff to you, I'll caution you—don't ...
— Spacehounds of IPC • Edward Elmer Smith
... throw; bow shot, gun shot, pistol shot; hair's breadth, span. purlieus, neighborhood, vicinage, environs, alentours [Fr.], suburbs, confines, banlieue^, borderland; whereabouts. bystander; neighbor, borderer^. approach &c 286; convergence &c 290; perihelion. V. be near &c adj.; adjoin, hang about, trench on; border upon, verge upon; stand by, approximate, tread on the heels of, cling to, clasp, hug; huddle; hang upon the skirts of, hover over; burn. touch &c 199; bring near, draw near &c 286; converge &c 290; crowd &c 72; place side by side &c adv.. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... Galileo, Simon Marius, Piazzi, Le Verrier, Herschel, Galle: the systematisations attempted by Bode and Kepler of cubes of distances and squares of times of revolution: the almost infinite compressibility of hirsute comets and their vast elliptical egressive and reentrant orbits from perihelion to aphelion: the sidereal origin of meteoric stones: the Libyan floods on Mars about the period of the birth of the younger astroscopist: the annual recurrence of meteoric showers about the period of the feast of S. Lawrence (martyr, lo August): ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... and I am sure she will honor us; for she was born six years ago under the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, and while Mars was at perihelion. Moreover, she is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and there are those who believe that there is especial virtue in that. I named her after the French empress, not because I am a particular admirer of that ...
— The House - An Episode in the Lives of Reuben Baker, Astronomer, and of His Wife, Alice • Eugene Field
... for such a limit seemed to me, although no positive refutation of their creed, still a point worthy very serious investigation. On comparing the intervals between the successive arrivals of Encke's comet at its perihelion, after giving credit, in the most exact manner, for all the disturbances due to the attractions of the planets, it appears that the periods are gradually diminishing; that is to say, the major axis of the comet's ellipse is growing ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe
... from the earth is about 91,500,000 miles. Since the orbit of the earth is elliptical, and the sun is situated at one of its foci, the earth is nearly 3,000,000 miles further from the sun in aphelion than in perihelion. As we attempt to locate the heavenly bodies in space, we are immediately startled by the enormous figures employed. The first number, 91,500,000 miles, is far beyond our grasp. Let us try to comprehend it. If there were air to convey a sound from the sun ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs |
