The Red Cloud chief., 1877-08-16
The Dumb Bell Nebula

In Nulnecula there is a remarkabI,
object called the Dumb.bell nebula, o.
star cloud. 1t cannot be seer well with,
out a very powerful telescope. Il was
formerly thought to consist entirely OF
small stars. so remote that they could
not be separately d~iscerned; but it has
lately been discovered that the greater
part of this nebula'S light comes from
glowing gas. The vastness of the space
occupied 10y this cloud of luminous Gas
Will be understOod-though no mind can
possibly conceive it-when | mention
that at the distance of the nearest of
the fixed stars the whole of our solar
system would appear but as a mere
point, even in a powerful telescope. The
Dumb-bell nebula covers quite a large
space as seen in such an instrument.
1t IS also, probably, much farther away
than the nearest fixed stars. II m,1st
therefore. occupy a region of space ok.
ceedlng many times that through which
the planets of cur solar system p,rs,e
their paths. Yet the span of our eartb's
path around the sun is fully Isl o0onoo
miles. while Neptune-the remntest
planet OF the solar syStem-traye's 3n
times farther from the sun, having TINS
an orbit spanning more than five thou
sand millions of miles. a globe lust
lifting the path of Neptune would con.
tain many quadrilliOns of cubic miles
and probably the Dumb-belI nebula
exceeds such a globe in volume Tor. to
speak More exactly. occupies a space
exceeding such a globe in volume) many
millions of times.
very strange is the thought that As
tronomers should have been able TO find
what this mighty mass of glowing
gas consists of. Placed yonder amid
me slorles of the Milky Way, lost to
vision through its vast remote
ness. only brought within u view at
all by means of powerful telescopes. and
only revealing its true shape when seen
Win the most powerful telescopes men |
t h'ti 1
yet constructed. what at first eight
seem more amazing than that men |
should be able to tell what kind OF sub.
stance 1t is which gives out the milky
ulster of that cloudlet in space? The
very light which comes to us from the
Dumb-bell nebula has probably taken
hundreds of years in crossing the ire.
space separating us from tina,
Yet that light has conveyed its
message truly. Examined with that
instrument. the spectroscope-wh whose
flee L lately described in a % on
he planet Eenus-the light of the
bell nebula pr, sents. not the rain
'ow-tlntei streak which comes from
solid and liquid bodies. but
hTee bright lights only. At least three
ines are seen If the nehula is examined
Trough a fine slit: if thu field of view
5 opened, there are seen three faint
of the cloudlet. The correct
ray Of describing what the spectrosc0pe
els us about this object is TO say that :
nstead of its light presenting all the /
Dlors of the rainbow, ii is found. when {
flied by the spectroscope. to contain {
nree colors only. all of them greenish. {
slightly different in tint. One Of d
re colors is precisely such a tint of I
as comes with four other colorsl
ON glowing hydrogen Gas, and shows r
thai there are enormous masses of I
'arogen in that remote cloud: another u
NJ SHOWS. IN like manner, that there 8
: immense masAas of nitrogen: but :,