A short story including comet 1 and comet 2 class 8
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Manoj Dutta lived on the outskirts of Kolkata. He had a secret ambition to discover a comet. When he retired, he bought an 8-inchc telescope. He named it ‘dibyachakshu’. His wife called it simply dibya. Duttada, as he was popularly known, spent many nights looking at the stars through dibya.
one moonless night, Duttada detected a new faint star. in fact, it was a new comet. after watching it for two nights, he informed the indian institute of astrophysics at Bangalore. They confirmed that Duttada had discovered a new comet. The comet was called ‘comet Dutta’.
Duttada liked to lead a quiet life. but his discovery made him famous. He was invited to a number of functions. Duttada was fed up. He wished he had not discovered the comet. His wife also agreed with him. but her reasons were different. She was unhappy because her husband was associated with the discovery of an evil object.
Duttada told her that comets were harmless. Like planets they orbit the sun. But their orbits are too eccentric. They come from afar. They have a longish tail. When they come near the sun, they shine brightly. After sometime, they disappear again and do not appear again for years.
Dr. James Forsyth was a professor at king’s college, Cambridge. He learnt about comet Dutta. He made his calculations. he found that in ten months’ time, comet Dutta was going to collide with the earth. He wrote a paper and sent it to a scientific magazine, ‘nature’. He wanted to have his paper published immediately.
Taylor, the editor of ‘nature’, was a friend of sir john Macpherson, who was defense science advisor to the British government. Taylor showed the paper to sir john for his opinion. Sir john did not want the paper to be published immediately. He sent for Dr. Forsyth.
A special messenger went to Cambridge to bring Dr. Forsyth to Macpherson’s office at night. the visit was kept secret. Sir John gave Dr. Forsyth’s manuscript to him. He said that he had verified his calculations and the collision between the earth and comet Dutta was imminent. He insisted that this prediction should be made known to the whole world. But Sir John said that if this information reached the people, they would be panicked. The collision meant the end of all living beings on the earth. so he advised Dr. James Forsyth to rewrite his paper. He wanted it to tone it down. He should say that there was a probability of the comet colliding with the earth. But collision was not certain. Then sir john decided that a secret meeting of experts from all over the world should be held.