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.

Is There A Planet "Vulcan"?

1900

Among the special observations to be undertaken during the total eclipse of the sun visible in our southern states on May 28th, will be a systematic search, with the aid of photography, for the supposititious planet "Vulcan," revolving around the sun within the orbit of Mercury.

It was thought that this planet had been seen during the eclipse of 1878, but later observations failed to confirm the discovery. Under the direction of Professor Pickering of Harvard, and of Professor Langley, independent efforts will be made to catch "Vulcan," if it exists, on photographic plates.


Musk-Oxen In Europe

Last summer a Norwegian mariner, Captain Gröndahl, succeeded in transporting two young musk-oxen alive from northeastern Greenland to Tromsö. These are said to be the first living specimens of their species ever brought to Europe. It is reported that they are doing well amid their new surroundings.

The musk-ox, next to the white bear, is the largest land mammal inhabiting the Arctic regions. It attains a height of nearly, or quite, four feet, and is clothed by nature to endure extreme cold. During the Arctic summer musk-oxen become very fat from feeding upon the pasturage which grows in every sheltered spot, but in winter their long fasts make them gaunt and thin. — Youth's Companion.

Telescope Reveals Ice Caps on Mars

1920

Question as to Whether Place Is Inhabited Is Declared Beyond Human Solution

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sending wireless messages to Mars and Venus, and the possibility of projecting a rocket to the moon, are subjects of recent speculation which have excited keener interest in the solar system.

"Mars always challenges interest," says William Joseph Showalter in a communication to the National Geographic Society.

"Its day is about the same length as ours, but its year is nearly twice as long. Although astronomers generally take less interest than laymen in the surmise as to whether the other planets and stars are inhabited, since they, more than laymen, realize that that is a problem that must in all human probability remain unsolved, the question is more often asked about Mars than any other planet.

Venus' Day 224 of Ours

Venus was an unusually interesting object in the sky during July of last year. Not again until February, 1921, will it appear as bright and fair in the evening sky. It has phases like the moon, and these can be seen even through a good field glass. Its day is believed to be the same length as its year, which is 224 of our days.

"It is quite generally believed that Mars has ice-capped poles. The telescope reveals white spots at the poles that have every appearance of being like our ocean Polar region. They advance toward the equator in winter and retreat in summer. In the summer of 1916 Pickering, who, with Lowell, has led the school of astronomers who believe they can see canals on Mars, said that he found the white caps stretching farther down toward the equator than he had ever seen them before.

He said that if there was any connection between the weather of Mars and that of the earth, the winter of 1916-17 would be the coldest in many years. And it was. May it yet be possible to do long-range weather forecasting on the earth by studying the waxing and waning of the ice-cap of the South Pole of Mars?

Cease Your Worry, World Will Last Ten Billion More Years

1920

Paris, April 13 — There's no need to worry about the end of the world for another ten thousand million years, according to Charles Nordmann, the well known scientific writer. Basing his opinion on the latest researches, M. Nordmann states that the rays of the sun, the source of all terrestrial life, should last at least 10,000,000,000 more years, unless there is a collision between the solar body and another planet.

Two famous savants, Hermoltz and Henri Poincare, estimated that the sun would have burned itself out within eight million years, but the recent discovery that the solar mass contains immense deposits of radium, means the sun's heat will have a vastly greater duration.

—The Chronicle Telegram, Elyria, Ohio, April 14, 1920, page 9.