Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-12-14
The Age of the Sun.

There has been long dispute be-
tween the physicists and mathemati-
clans on the one hand, and the
geologists and biologists on the other,
as to the age of the earth, or rather,
since that is equally involved, the age
of the sun. DIR. Croll, the distinguished
Scotch geOlOgist, has recently offered a
theory which is not altogether new, but
admits of some novel arguments, and
which may serve all parties to the dis
pute. Beginning with review of the
different theories as to the SUMS heat,
he rejects the combustion theory as to-
tally inadequate, since if the sun were
all II mass of burning coal it would not
last over 5000 years; the chemical
theory does not prolong the duration
sufficiently; the meteoric theory will not
serve; the only remaining explanation
is the gravitation or condensation
theory. This supposes that the materi-
ais of the solar system were originally
nebula, extending through a space
many times greater than the orbit of
Neptune. The falling together, the
condensation of this amount of matter,
it can be automatically shown, would
supply enough heat to keep the sun at
its present temperature for 20,000,000
years. Unfortunately, that period is
not sufficient for the geologist. He
demands at least 100000, 900 years for
the changes of the earth surface, and
would prefer twice that length of time.
The arguments of the geologists are al
most unanswerable; those of the biolo-
gist who believes in evolution tend to
the same point so far as they go. Prof.
Croll says that there is way out of
this difficulty by supposing that the
nebula was not cold but hot. If you
suppose it hot enough to start with, you
will have heat enough to carr Y
you through. Obviously it is just as
easy to suppose a hot nebula as a cold
one. But Prof. Croll proposes to pro-
vide for this original heat If the solar
system had originally consisted of two
masses, each of half the density of the
whole, at some immeasurable distance
apart, and they fell foul of each other
owing to their mutual gravitation, they
would strike with speed of 274 miles
per second. If their motion was
stopped by the conclusion, an amount
of heat would be developed sufficient to
convert the whole into nebula that
would take 5O,O0O,00O years to cool.
This is decidedly an improvement on
the cool nebula. But this supposes that
the component halves, before they
started on their way to a collision, had
no motion. Let us suppose that they
were moving beforehand at the rate of
POP miles per second, and thatthis speed
was added to what they got by gravitat-
| ing towards each other; than we get,
when they struck, a nebula extending
beyond Neptune, and with heat enough
for a sun for 100000 years dura-
ton. If you insist upon 200, 900,
you must give the original masses
speed of 676 miles per second before
hand. 1t will be objected that no such
motion has been observed in space.
Even the planets do not make such
fast time; the earth, for instance, going
only 1000 miles in minute. The
fixed stars whose motion has been as
certained travel very much slower
But Prof. Croll says the fixed stars are
those that have gone through the col
lision process and have lost their mo-
ton. The new hypothesis gets behind the
ordinary nebular theory in point of
time, giving an explanation for the for
nation of the nebul9. But it presup-
pose that there may be vast, cold, in
visible masses of matter rushing
through space with such velocity that
their mere touch would convert our
globe into red-hot gases and distribute
it through infinite space. ThAconcep-
ton is not incompatible with the sudden
flaming out of new star and its con-
vertion into the nebula, as seems to
have been the case with the Schmidt
star in Cygnus; but the facts in that re-
markable case were probably not known
to Prof. Croll at the time his essay was
written. Philadelphia Telegraph.