The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1851-02-08
Recent Astronomy

Professor LOOMS recent work on Astronomy cou
talns n great amount Of interesting knowledge
One section of this history treats Of the Emotion
the sun and stars, in the great celestial spher,
Though We speak Of the sun as the centre of th,
planets and comets, or the solar system, aualog,
would lead to the probable motion Of the sun an,
his attendant bodies, around its common centre
Astronomer. have for considerable time NOR,
than expected this to be the fact
The fixed stars retain "the same relative 20
stirn from age to age :" but so minutes and az
Curate have the observations become by rcaeol
of the improved instruments Of Astronomical re-
search that relative motion in q large number
I Of the stars has been certain This motion i {,
be accounted fur to great extent by the real mo
ton Of the centre ofthc centre fthc solar system
1t has been noticed that the stars in one part .
the heavens are slowly approaching each other
while in the opposite part the stars are rCCedina
from each other. This must result from the rca
motion Of the centre ofour system. from the for
mor and towards the latter. As early as 1853
llcrschcll compatcd the point towards which oui
sun is moving, to bee in the constellation OF Her
culcs Others have once TO the same result tn,
mean Of various results places this point in right
a>cention al out 2fOo, and dcclination 80.
Later computations render it probable that the
motion Of the SUN is in huge curve, in which it,
velocity may be 1000 miles an hour
So minute and extensive have been the obser
vatiuns on the fixed stars, that astronomers hav,
aimed at computed results which transcend incon
ceiyabIy all the autcipatons of former times
Newton himself would be amazed Mt the present
state OfRstrouOmv.
Prof Madlcr Of the Dorpat Observatory. ha.
even circulated the probable centre of the uni
verse around which our system is revolving Thi,
centre must be found iuthe crcumphcrcncc Of q
great circle, whose pole is that point toward
which the sun i moving Thus is very obviou.
on moments consideration, and that point has
already been mentioned The pole lust noticed
is in the vicinity Of the Pclades or seven stars
most remarkable and beautiful cluster; and
Madcr proposes Alcyono in that cluster the most
prominent Of the Plciades, ns the centre through
which Our son Is revolving, and calls it the central
sun of the great system
This is partially corroborated by the fact that
the ost palpable and greatest of the real motions
of the fixed Stars are found in great circle dcs
crbed about the Pcades as pole, the very place
where such must occur.
The sctoInding mondcrs are now to Gene. For
Prof Nader computes the distance Of Alcyonc 10
be "thirty-iour millions Of times that Of the sun
from TIE earth requiring 5S7 year. for its light
to come to US at the rate Of 5000 miles u sec.
ond, or "of twelve millions of miles per minute
If this be So the periodic time Of the sun (aud Of
our SYSTEM about Aleyone is estimated at eigA.
tan millions Of year,
For enlargement Of human conception, this is
magnificent enough. Should it not all prove to
be an approximation to the truth, the world will
see in it the heaviugs and aspirations of the as.
Economical spirit The revolutions Of the planets
round the sun, especially Of Neptune at the dis.
tancc Of 5000 millions Of miles in 81 years, in
wolves a stretch Of though that makes the brain
whlrl; but that the sun carries with him all the
planets and comets around another centre at a
distance and time only inceiyable, who can stand
that