Word: comet
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...three stepchildren in English schools, Her fragile Highness Queen Hope Namgyal, 25, was in London when she learned of the Red Chinese threat to her tiny Himalayan kingdom. Hope was brave. "There is an old Tibetan prophecy which says that trouble in Sikkim would be as rare as a comet at midday," she said, "and also would be like the shadow of an eagle's wing." Besides, she added, "there is the Sikkim national guard to protect us"-fierce Sikkimese all, to be sure, but only 280 of them. The Queen flew to New York for a medical checkup...
...comet is now just visible without a telescope as a fuzzy glow in the morning sky before dawn, Each day for the next several weeks it will become a little brighter and love a little nearer...
...most interesting moment will come on the night of Oct. 20 when the comet will skim by the sun's surface, perhaps as close as 300,000 miles (the sun's diameter is 900,000 miles). Owen J. Gingerich, lecturer on Astronomy, and Brian Marsden of the SAO expect the total brightness of the comet may then, rival that of the crescent moon, and its tail may extend more than half-way from the horizon to the zenith...
Strauge things often happen to comets when they pass close to the sun. In 1846 a comet split into two pieces in a latter of days. In 1744 a comet emerged from behind the sun with five talis where one had been before. And in 1843 comet was visible in broad daylight: While about half a dozen comets are discovered in an average year, spectacular ones such as these come very rarely...
...Comets are named for their discoverers, and this one is comet Ikeya-Seki, found by two Japanese amateur astronomers. Such "comet hunters," attempting to immortalize themselves, find one comet in about 200 hours of searching...