The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-09-15
The Extinction OF Worlds,

The progress OF science enables us to
trace, with a probability almost amount
ing to certainty, the career Of q star from
its birth from the most diifused condition
of its parent nebula; through the stage of
primary agglOmeratiOn when it shines as
our sun; through the process Of cooling
into dim and cloudy spheroid, such as
Jupiter or our earth; until cold rules su-
preme, and the cnCe glowing orb rolls
on, barren as our moon.
But when we have reached this stage
we have by no means done with the star.
1t must continue on its course. and,
though in obscurity, 1t must retain its
momentum and its attractive force. Our
sun will thus one day travel in darkness,
attended by cohort OF funercal planets,
and perpetual night will reign over the
solar system. This result appears to be
but e question Of time, and we are, there
fore, led to the consideration that many
systems must, in all probability, be already
extinct, and wandering unnoticed But
as extinction is n gradual process, there
Will be multitudes Of stars in various
stages of dimness, and the brilliency of
any ORD, its magnitude" in fact, will
therefore depend on its age, quite as much
as on It's size or distance. On this view,
| ing" cannot be relied on for a correct de-
| termination of the actual shape Of the
cluster called the "Milky- Way" as, in
stead of taking the average Of brightness
only as an indication of the average of
distance, we have to superadd the average
OF age. Now, the smaller the star the
more quickly will its light die out, and,
therefore, the necessary extent of our
galaxy is immensely reduced; in other
words, il appears that while the space
separating US from the nearer stars, for
which parailax has been obtained,
remains OF course unchanged, the COM
| puted distances Of those hitherto con-
sidered to be farthest OFF will be much
lessened, as there appears to be no reason
tor concluding that telescope stars are
necessarily more distant than bright ones
for which we cannot obtain parsllax, but
SIMPLY that they are older, CT smaller, or
both, and therefore DINNER.
1t will be readily allowed thit, If the
| light OF the stars be fading away, o vast
number may have already become extinct,
and that it is indeed possible that the orbs
now visible may be but small surviving
remnant of far greater multitudes which
once illumined the heavens. If our Gus
ter then be much reduced in extent. and
| its constituents be largely increased in
number, it would follow that the chances
against collision would be much reduced
Let us suppose that collisions are possible
and that their frequency is merely uues
ton Of chances What would be the
consequences of such an event? 1t il
possible that they would depend chiefly
on the relative momenta of the collidina
bodies; that If one were much larger
than the other, and the Velocitics high
the temperature would be raised suff'
GENTLY to dissipate the smaller into gsa
while merely heating or, possibly, iiqueiy
ing the larger Ii the bodies were nearly
OF a size, and their nnomenta were great
possibly both would be reduced TO a Gas
eous condition; in either case their ten
dency would be to form ultimately q bed,
equal In weight to the sum of its two con
stituents. Either the larger body woulc
annex the smaller, or, if both becam,
nebulous, the fervid gases would radiat,
their heat and contract anew into a svs
| TEN possibly containing a sun and piau
cts.
Again, supposing that two bodies an
proach each other in such manner as {,
avoid & collision, that is, so that Their mu
tual gravity causes them to leave thci
paths and reyOlve round each other, w
should have the explanation of the exis;
ence OF double, treble, multiple stars W,
should also understand how it happen
that some stars (Slrlus, for instance) ar
accompanied by non luminous orbs. Also
it would seem that if extinct stars ar
really lar more numerous than is general
ly supposed, the theory which regards tn,
revolution Of attendant dark bodies a
one cause of the variability Of certain
stars receives fresh support.
Thus, in the course of time, nebula
would form suns, suns would grow cold
or, while yet glowing, would come INT,
contact with other suns, till gradual,
space would be peopled with suns, larger
and larger, but less and less thickl,
strewn. Pursuing the idea, we arrive a
a period when all the stars of each galax,
shall become agglomerated into one