The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-04-04
A New Star.

A New Star. Sss5 ss
RichardA Proctor IN st. Nicholas for April ~
Since first this paper was ritten. sl
new star has appeared in the scOnstel-
lation, Cygnus (the Swan. On the
evening of November Oath, Professor
Schmidt, director of the Athens OBJ
servatory, noticed there a star OF the
third magnitude. Not only was no
star of that brightness there before, or |
any star visible to the naked eye, but /
it = was found when catalogues and
charts came to be examined, no star
had ever been noted there, even in
lists meant to include all stars down to
the tenth magnitude. For instance,
Argelander has made such a list, and
charts from it, showing no. less than
$4,000 stars,-that is, a hundred times
as many as we can see on the darkest
and clearest night; yet his list showed
no star where the new one had appear
ed. Astronomers do not, however, sup
pose the new star is really new, except
in the sense Of being, seen for the first
time. They know that when last, a
new star appeared in that way it
was found to- be one of Argelander's.
army of $4,000 stars, which had ap:
peared in the constellation Of the
Northern Grown in May, 1866, they
found that, though it faded gradually
out of sight to: ordinary vision, the
telescope could still follow it, until it
had sunk to the tenth magnitude at
which degree of magnitude it still re
mains. No doubt if we had full lists
Of all stars down to the fifteenth, or
perhaps the twentieth, magnitude, we
should have found that the new star in
Cygnus was simply an old faint star
which had frightened up suddenly land
remained for time as one among the
stars adjoining our skies.
Examined with an instrument called
the spectroscope the new star gave q
very strange account of itself. 1t was
found to be emitting some sort Of light
as other stars but, besides that light,
it emitted such light as comes from
intensely heated vapors.. Among the
vapors in that star thus (for the time)
Intensely hot, were hydrogen, the
vapors of the metals sodium and ma.
gensium, and vapor known to be
present in enormous quantities in our
suns outer atmosphere, as seen during
times of total eclipse. All these
vapors surrounded our sun and it is
very probable that if anything caused
: our sun to blaze out with greatly in.
creased light and heat; folks living on
a world circling round some other sun
would find the same peculiarities III
our suns light as we have found in
the light of the new star in the Swan
What caused that star to blaze out il
=. that strange way, we do not know
We should like to know, because VIZ
might then determine whether TIT
cause had so disturbed that sun NIGH
not be one from which our own SUI
may one day suffer 4 Whatever til,
cause was, it's effects did not last yer,
long. In a week the new star ha(
sunk to the fifth magnitude, in another
week to the sixth, in yet another t.
the seventh, since which TIM
December &l5th) above the eight
magnitude. But although the unusua
light and heat of that remote sun fad
ed thus quickly away, yet if inhab1te'
worlds circled around that sun, tn
cooling Of their sun must have com
far too late to save those creatures
lives. Ii our sun were to shine eve
but for twenty -four hours with severe
hundred times it's usual heat, it
certain that every creature on tn
earth would be destroyed, and whe
the sun returned to its usual luster
would shine on system Of worlds O
which not a single. living creature Wa
left. 2... ~~