Plan of the Universe So Vast It Baffles Human Comprehension

1920

Orion
By S. F. Maxwell
[Copyright, 1920, by W. D. Boyce Co.]

What is the plan of the universe? Time and space go on and on forever, but there is a limit to the stars, in this little corner of the sky, at least.

The stellar universe is vast almost beyond comprehension. We think the 92,000,000 miles to the sun is an immense distance, yet light crosses it in eight minutes. The distance light goes in a year is the ordinary unit for stellar distances, yet in measuring the size of the universe it is entirely too small.

Example in Reduced Proportions.

Here is an example of the proportions of outer space. Let the earth's orbit be represented by a silver dime. Then Mars is one inch away, Jupiter 5 inches, Saturn eight inches, Uranus seventeen inches and Neptune thirty inches. This ends the sun's little family of planets. The nearest star on this scale is three miles away, the next is seven, the next nine, and most of the others are hundreds and thousands Of miles away.

Now multiply this scale enough to make the dime 186,000,000 miles in diameter, and you have a fair idea of the size of the universe. We can see the stars clearly over such enormous expanses of space because they are exceedingly bright and also because an absolute vacuum exists between, with nothing to stop their speeding light waves.

There are forces permeating all this great expanse, chief of which is gravity. It is nowhere as strong as the gravity we experience on the surface of the earth, but as there is no force adequate to counteract it, it swings the stars about just as the sun swings its planets.

There are two streams of stars in the sky, rushing along like motes in a sunbeam. The two streams mix at times, and mingle together without apparently suffering in the least. Stars are to a great extent independent of their nearest neighbors. There are many close clusters that move from birth to death without the component parts falling together at all.

Streams of Moving Stars.

Astronomers, watching the stars of the sky moving in great streams, were much impressed by the amount of force necessary to hold so great a bulk of stars together. Left to themselves they could go on and on forever, and the universe would eventually disintegrate. Nothing like this seems to be taking place. The source of energy remained a mystery until it was discovered that the Orion stars did not partake of the general motion. They alone, of all the stars in the sky, stand still, and all the others wheel around them.

Orion is a gigantic constellation, and its suns are all huge, heavy bodies, whose tremendous pull of gravity is felt in every part of the celestial vault.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.