Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1847-02-11


are lighted up.
Admiring as we do the zeal and success
with which astronomers have prosecuted the
difficult subject of double stars, we must ac-
knowledge that much remains to be done
both by optical and mechanical improve
ments in our astronomical instruments, and
we cannot hatter our readers, as some wri-
tiers have done, with the announcement that
astronomers have demonstrated the extension
to the sidereal heavens of the same law of
gravity, which regulates the motions in our
own system. However probable the univer-
salty of such a law may be, probability is
not fact and the science is too rich in
facts and laws to require the aid of fancy or
speculation. We have no objection to n.y.
potheses, however wild, when they are used
but as incentives or as guides to observation
and experiment, but we reject them with dis
dain, whether they are brought forward as
true themselves, or as the ornaments or bull
warks of truth.
Before we quit the subject of double stars,
we must again refer to the remarkable re-
searches of Professor Bessel from which
there is reason to believe that there are BIZ
nary systems, in which only one of the two
stars is visible, because only one is lumin-
Gus. In the same manner as Mr.. Adams
and NJ. lie Verrier, found irregularities in
the motion of Uranus, which could only be
explained by the action of another planet
more remote, so Professor Bessel found GER
tain Irregularities in the motion Of Sirius and
Procyon, which could only be explained by
their moving in orbits under the influence of
central forces, and consequently round an
other star, which, being invisible, must be
non-luminous one. If this ingenious de-
duction shall be confirmed as the other has
been, by the actual discovery ofthc disturb
ING body, which, unless it has a certain de-
gree of luminosity, we cannot expect, or if
the existence of the dark companions of ST.
RUS and Procyon be admitted by astrono-
mers on the evidence of their disturbing IN
huence, we must abandon all those specula-
tons respecting orders of distances in the
heavens founded on the supposed connec-
ton between the size and brightness of
star and its distance. If there be dark stars,
or rather, stars whose light is so faint that
our best telescopes cannot descry them, there
may be similar bodies, of different degrees
of luminosity, in which the luminosity is Ell
Their uniformly difiused over their surface, as
in the case of our own sun, or i'll which GER
tain portions are much brighter than others,
as appears to be the case in variable stars.
Should this very probable supposition be
true, then may the fantest, or what is the
same thing in bodies without discs, the small
lest star, be the nearest, and the brightest
the most remote. The very existence, in
deed, of variable stars, proves that distance
cannot be inferred from brightness
These phenomena of these variable stars
are exceedingly interesting, and so general
is this property, that Sir w. Herschel was
of opinion that about one in every thirty of
the stars that are singly visible, exhibits an
observable change of lustre.
The variation in the light of stars, which
has been so generally observed, may arise
from different causes; but when it returns
every three days, as in the case of Algol,
we must ascribe it to the rotation of the star
about its axis, which brings necessarily into
view darker and lighter portions of its sur
face Sir W. Herschel has enumerated thir-
teen stars that are either lost or have under
gone some great change, and he has also
given numerous list of stars that have
changed their magnitudes since Flamsteeds
time, and smaller list Of stars that have
recently become visible.
The collection of stars into groups ofspe-
cfic forms has naturally attracted the notice
of astronomers, and we owe the best portion
of our knowledge of such groups to Sir w
. Herschel. These clusters have commonly
: spherical form, and Sir John Herschel af-
firms that many of them whose area "does
9 not exceed or 10 minutes, or not more
than a tenth part of the Moon" must con-
tain at least ten or twenty thousand stars
The stars which compose these clusters are
, often so remote or so small that they appear
only as a white space in the heavens, some
times with and sometimes without stars In
proportion, however, as the telescope ha:
been improved, these nebule have been resol
|, we'd into stars, and, as we have stated in pre-
| ceding articles, the star dust, and world mist
= and nebulosity of speculative writers, have
9 in many cases displayed their component
. stars in the grand telescope of Lord Rose
y Captain Smith, as most OF us had previous
y ly done, till they became the basis of mis-
9 chevous speculation, has adopted all the ex
= travagant ideas about nebulous matter ant
its condensation into stars; but while h
styles the nebulm chaotic rudiments undo
. active arrangement, advancing towards or
a ganization and beauty" he neutralizes thi
!. opinion by the confession " that nature ha
= get to be caught in the fact Of eondensin4
% the phosphoreseent or sey-iuminous matter
:. di6nSed through certain regions Of space in
. to future systems, according to the plausible
y speculations of Sir w. Herscheh" As DR.
- Michel, the most popular and eloquent ex
y FOUNDER ofthe nebular hypothesis, has, witt
a true greatness of mind, and under the IN
fluence of Lord Rosse's discoveries, public
! ly renounced it, we shall not again enter IN
y to its discussion; but, in illustration OF tn
> views which we have given of the matte
which composes comets, we are DESTROYS Q
pointing out the probability that luminou
= matter incapable ofbeing resolved into stars
u because not stellar, may yet be detected b
y powerful telescopes If it be quite certain
- as it appears to be, that the light of the CON
y cts is wholly reflected light, and lift be tru
= that there are dark stars forming parts of b
- nary systems, then these stars must be illu
- minated, however feebly, by the bright sell
= luminous companions with which they re
:, volve. Hence it follows, that if other plan
- etary systems have the same number OF com