The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1878-08-24
VAST LITELEss BODIES.

In the New York World W,
find the following interesting ar
ticle to lovers OF science:
For some years it has beer
known that among the stars ther.
are immense bodies which arr
dark or. like the planets, shine
. ith II reflected hight. Such a stal
ls the dark companion Of SIRIUS
which is about seven times al
large as our sun, and another has
been rec .g,ized IN the aeigbor-
rood of Procyon. 1t supposed,
and the supposltion is valid de.
dnction from the Nebular Hypoth.
esis. that these bodies are dead
suns which have already arrived
at the state in which the center o1
our own solar system will be
when the planets, one after aDoth.
er, shall have fallen into and its
heat shall have heen spent ia
space, through which it. then will
wander llteless and no longer life
| gl.ihg. There is . theory enter,
| tanned by many scientific men that
when processes similar to this, but
on an inconceivabIy grander scale,
shall have been wrought to their
penuI,inate result, two vast bod>
| ies alone will be lett III he mate
rial universe; and these, speeding
towards each other with ever
accel. ratlng veloclty through an
an almost Infinite distance, will
finally clash togetEeraed s,aaerate
sufficient heat to disseminate mt.
ter ont to its original boundaries,
gradually to return again 10 its
state at the moment OF the grand
collision. According 10 theory
recently developed III Germany
the dar6 surs blaze mp again with
a quasi spon,anei'yI of their own
which does not derend upon col-
li-ion, bat upon causes Nh,ch
render It by no means improbable
that at any momentIany Ut ihe,n
may burst Int flame and perhaps
bring about the premature des-
tructlon of neigh5oring systems.
] We have but TO suppose such a
star rear Us big with catastrophe
to see how possible at any mo-
ment is the coming of the dies iyG
Our own sun is but a plgmy
Which, seen from the farthest OF
It's own planets to whose orbit it.
own bulk once extended, would
but gllmmer like star. aud it Is
far on its r, al to Xt.ngu sament.
yet it still radiates at every secold
heat enough to melt 2s7 200 099
cubic miles OF Ice. The dark
com, an;on OF the dog star
which itse'f has nnd, rgo, such
charges in physical constitution
| in 1900 years that 1T has turned
from a star redder thai Mars to
one that Is now nearly azure lis
now burnt out and contracted to
Tits smallest dimensions, nd yet
it IS seven tmes as large as the
sun. No imagination is strong
eaoagh to conceive the amlunt d
i heat which won!d be thrown oul
from it should it wake from its
ACTIVITY aud become a living sun
According to the Loschmidt the.
ory, which holds that such dark
8 bodies absorb 'nto their own inta
nors heat from space until sc
much is. accumulated that the,
burst into fame again, such cal
amity is MT only probable bu
certain. Tie phenomena OF tenn
porary stars are explicab.e upol
!, this theory. Of these are tha
which appeared IN the time 0
rycho Brahe, which suddenly ap
peared as bright as Venus, ant
continued visible with variou!
lsts for seventeen months ane
then disappeared again. and 'h'
stars IN Cas~iopeia, when cam,
. and vanished during 800 years
that which was seen by Hind il
184S III Ophiuchus, and another il
he constellation OF the Crow
which excited attention in 1866
. These instances show, moreover
+ how great the nuInDer OF thes
: now dark bodies must be. Th,
potential energy Of the stella
| universe is thus ceaselessly con
!, Quoted into actual working fore,
, OF which we see bat lite. Til
} conversion mus. be .easeless, be
, cause throughout space there ar
, systems small and great in ever,
J conceivable physical co dition
| from the Youngest to the middle
E aged, the .ecrepit and the dead.
As planets fall into their suns
so systems are n esged into sYs
i TENS, aud that TO which our cart
] belongs has been shows by Hug
a gins 10 he perceptibly apploach
! lug some great congeries of stal
t and recedlng from others as
s hastens on through space to a
5 unknown destination. 1t follow
} from the nebular theory that ther
exisr vast central suns whlc
cannot de seen, having long slnc