Schvassmann-Wachmann Comet Shows Unusual Variation in Brilliance--Peltier-Whipple-Sase Discovered This Year

Observation on one of the most unusual comets ever reported, the Schavasmann-Wachmann, are being carried on dally at the Observatory under the direction of F. L. Whipple, astronomer.

One of the strangest things about the comet, Whipple pointed out yesterday, was the fact that at certain times it suddenly flares up and becomes one hundred times as bright as its normal luminosity. Many ideas for this variation in brilliance have been set forth by astronomers all over the country, but few of them seem to give any valid reason for it. Whipple stated that one of the more feasible is that there may be a great cloud of meteor dust, not unlike that which surrounds Saturn, through which the comet is at present passing; and it is the gases that are emitted by this cloud which unite with the comet and produce a reflection of unusual brillianey, a light which is made brighter by the presence of the sun. Another theory has been that ultraviolet light surrounds the comet.

The year 1932 was one of the best comet years in recent history when 14 were either discovered, or reappeared after a long absence. On August 9 Whipple observed a new comet on a photographic plate. The photograph was taken with a one-inch lens and the body can be discerned on a clear night with the naked eye. The comet was seen a few hours earlier by Peltier, a variable star observer in Ohio, who saw it without a telescope. In California a Japanese vegetable grower, named Sase, who was busy with his lens saw it also with the result that the comet now bears the name Peltier-Whipple-Sase