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HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK
If Herschel had not known this body to be a comet, he would have described its head, as "a very large, brilliant, round nebula, suddenly much brighter in the middle." He says that he would have added, "The centre of it might consist of very small stars." So struck was he with this singular idea that he directed a telescope "with a high power to the comet." He then saw "several small stars shining through the nebulosity of the coma." The terror which once surrounded the appearance of these bodies in the heavens is gone; the awe remains, and, as knowledge increases, the mysteries that attend their birth, their growth, their flight through space, have become greater and more wonderful problems awaiting solution.
