बृहत्संहिता (आचार्य वराहमिहिर - स्थापत्य, खगोल, मौसम व जल विज्ञान)

146 बृहत्संहितायाम् [Adh. XII. Sl. 1. दृष्ट्वा षोडश वासराञ् शुभदः कैश्चित्प्रदिष्टः शिखी सर्वारम्भफलप्रदो हि नियतं चैत्रेऽथवा माधवे । ऋक्षं यत्परिशुक्तपीडितहतं यच्चाऽऽशिखाभेदितं तत्सर्वं परिवर्ज्य शुद्धमपरं पाणिग्रहे वास्तुषु ॥ NOTE.—Compare (with the above) what modern science has to say on the subject of comets : "What then is a comet according to the latest scientific researches ? The spectroscope has pretty well solved the query. It consists, first, of a more or less solid nucleus of fire, blazing and glowing ; second, of vast masses of incandescent gas, constituting the luminous head ; third, solid materials, constituting the tail, which are ponderable, which reflect the Sun's light and are carried along by the influence of the nucleus ; fourth, an immense prolongation of the tail in the nature of attenuated volumes of gas. The solid materials of a comet, it is believed, consist of stones and sand, particles ground by ceaseless attrition. The proof of this is the concession of most astronomers that meteoric showers are shreds and patches of cometic matter, dropped from the tail, and these meteors are stones. The genesis of comets is found to be in the explosion of planetary bodies, a theory not without good scientific authority. Arago estimates that there are 17,000,000 of these fiery wan- derers within the orbit of Neptune, and Lambert regards 500,000,000 as a moderate estimate for those in the solar system. All the astronomers agree that they are scattered through space as profusely as the fish in the seas. The Orbit of the Earth is over- whelmed in a fine net work of cometary orbits, and our globe is like a lost child in a forest full of wild beasts. " CHIDAMBARA IYER. Thus ends the 11th Adhyaya on the "course of Comets". अगस्त्यचारः ॥१२॥ Agasthya (Canopus). भानोर्वर्त्मविघातवृद्धशिखरो विन्ध्याचलः स्तम्भितो वातापिर्मुनिनांक्षांभित् सुरारिपुर्जोऽनथ यनासुरः ।