The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1873-12-11

NUM- BER II
sand" Of syst+ms-if now we allow no more
planets to each Of these systems than is found
in our own. we would have t,uenty thousand
millions Of ,corlds in our stellar system, in
with the most Of which, our first
unit Of measure is absolutely nothing. That
we may form some idea of the vastness Of this
system of words, let u remember that our sun
BY bis retinue Of planets and
display of cometal fireworks has an
absolute motion, among these ~ ,000, 900 Of sis-
ter systems, of 153,0O0.0 900 miles annually.
Loomis says, Ibis orbit is 90 great that ages
may elapse before it will be possible to detect
any change in the direction of his motion"
That is, our system Of nearly 200 immense and
widely separated bodies. are. en- nsasse. darting
along on On air line through this dense forest Of
words. apparently intent on leaving Us by the
nearest route.
Maedler. however, supposed the center OF
this motion to be in the Pleiades, and that
l8. 100000 years are required for single
But this spstem of worlds. i'm.
mense and immeasurable a. it ia. according to
the system of gauging the star.depths employed
by Sir William Hcrschel. is circumscribed bys
definite boundary. 1T is true" says President
Winchell, "that tho telescope reveals multi
tude Of stars not seen by the uuaided eye, and
as the power increases, star after star rises in
the far.oif horizon of our view. till it would
seem that the number isiufnite and boundless."
To US, situated within this vast assemblage of
worlds. il looks to the naked eye like bells of
light encircling us. and to which appearance,
Astronomers have given the name Via Laetae.
But could we convey ourselves beyond this
cluster of stars, off into the depth Of space,
We might look back upon this vast assemblage
Of worlds and see huge double convex figure,
in general appearance resembling those nebu-
le which lie 10 the deep vast abyss beyond US.
Tho telescope carries US. not only to the
of this starry armament, but across
the dark and trackless interval, and 10! upon
the remotest part Of the universe, are seen
"dim patches Of light, presenting hazy. un-
defined or cloud.like sppearance,"-these are
the nebule. more than 5000 of which have
been laid down ou the map Of the heavens;
some Of these no doubt lie within the limits Of
our starry 6rmament, but many lie beyond it,
and are themselves other ornaments. Many
of them have been resolved by powerful glasses
into hundreds, and even thousands. of stars
which, from their remoteness appear to be
crowded together in all kinds Of shape, many
of them have remained unchanged in appear.
ance under the most powerful telescopes, and
probably when we have 20 far improved tho
space penetrating power Of our instruments 40
to resolve these, we will by the same power
discover new nebul@ farther on in tho depths
ofspace. The most remarkable of these resolved
nle, and the one most readily understood. 10
that discovered by Huygens in 1859. which,
until quite recently, was considered irTesolva.
bic, but Lord Rosse's telescope shows it to con-
sist of "vast multitude of stars Professor
Mitchell has estimated that light, travelling at
the rate Of 100000 Of miles per minute,
would require $4,000 years to reach us from
that distant nebule; and yet this object can be
seen from this incalculable remoteness with
the naked eye. what. then, must be its dimen.
sions2 Professor Loomis has estimated the
dimensions of several of these nebulae, suppos-
ing them to be no nearer than some of the
stars whose distances are known-and they
arc certainly much farther off-their distances
are morn than 10000 millions Of miles-or four
times larger than the orbit Of Neptune.
"Were the universe limited to the great CO.
lar cluster, in the midst of which we are
placed, it would be impossible to conceive Of
its almost infinite dimension; but when We re.
fact that this vast and glowing zone Of suns 10
but one Of Thousands Of such assemblages
which, from their remoteness. appear only 40
1eecy clouds lowering over the frontiers Of
space. we are absolutely overwhelmed and lost
in the mighty abyss Of bsing!"
Vast as this realm Of matter 10, over it all
oresides one common law-revealing the unity
Of its origin. Each armament, each system,
each world, moving in their own appointed
paths with less likelyhood of collision than
the parts Of the most perfect machinism OF
mans invention!
IT LEVELS ALA case has just como to
light at Kalamazoo, Michigan, At . yonag wo-