Arizona weekly enterprise., 1881-08-06
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<ke Dfss4nes from tue Earth tO the s"n eand the Ffred sstars-T1se Spaces Fntu of

Ian.rii.
 Prof Richard A. Proctor.l
 When we look at the skies on calm, clear night, when all the myriads of stars are shining, the least thoughtful mind is impressed with the idea that H solemn calm reigns there. One Is in- clined to believe that all those suns are in a state of perfect rest. The astrono- { mer sees that they move. They have several different movements. These. however, are orly apparent. The turn ing of the earth upon its axis aud its lu ovemeut around the sun cause these movements to appear. The astr3nomel recognizes the stirs as Ill one sense stil' IT fixed. But the star depths a.e full oi -oise and tlInult. Go into soGe manu' factory where a mass of machinery IS Ill moti 1n, where there Is 8 scene ot great energy and noise. It Is abSo.uteiy notn- ,ne compared with what IS going on ID he depths of space. We are able to finders taud this when we know that the -tars are so f.r away. The nearest ot -li the stars lies at such distance that nlr own sun, set beside 1t, would seem co be an ordinary star of the second magnitude. Tine star which Is consid- cred the nearest to us Is Alpha CeAtaurl.
 think I am justified ill saying that 1t |, the only one whose distance lrom the earth IS absolutely known. Forlnstance, No. 6l of the constellation ot the Swan IS said to be the second ill distance from us. Its distance IS said by some to be 1 three times as great us that of the near est star. which lies twenty millions of n,iI.;a.----...iI..e- -f-..-~s,.s' --A ~ -A---~-7 can astronomer, Peters, makes It only twice as tar. Hence, between the two | calculations there Is an error ot at feast ! teu millions of millions ot miles.
 The trouble IS that astronomers can not get space enough to work upon. ,yo oase line of sufficient length can be obtained for the calculation by trian2u- lation of such enormous distances. But We know that these stars lie so far away | that the sun would be small star be- side one of them. The sun Is not g star of the first magnitude, but we shall take him as a specimen star.
 In the first place, the sun lies at dis tance of between 92, 900, 900 and 93, ,0OO, GOO miles from the earth. A train of cars going at the rate of twenty miles an hour would be 500 years in traversing that enormous distance. A cannon ball shot from Krupp gun would be thirteen years, if it could maintain the same rate of speed throughout the entire distance. Even light, which travels with velocity wholly beyond conception, takes eight and one quarter minutes in reaching us Hence, the sun is not in the place where he seems to be. He is just as far away from where he seems to be as he car travel in eight and one-quarter minutes which is 5000 miles. And this leads u to the important thought that, if grayit. travelled at only the same rate, the whol solar system would be thrown out o gear. The planets would have thei paths so widened that they would no get the right amount of heat and hgh from the sun. Hence, gravity traverse distance at rate infinitely greater thal the velocity of light.
 The s,la is . tremendous body. If W uere on the sun eraslt5 would crush U dnt. Ifs N8alf end heat are wonderful Tha eIsctzEc Iiel1 bze only one-third tn average lus6<r of the suns surface. 1 square neh of the xun's surface woul give 300 times as much. and the entir sun one quadrillion times as much lgh as an electric light.
 We inquire whence the sun gets hi power of making heat. It was once sup posed that the sun was fire. But evel if it were of the best burning substanc it would be used up in 5000 years Tn latest theory is that the suns heat is de rived from it's own gravitating power e1 s....ua .aas.s..,,s sE,a -.s---'s snoIher Que&tioa Tire ags of the cart f prss1el taaks lh5 >os amt be very olt 'Enal Id hosId 12ss zllrunk more.
 think the sun is not what he seems.
 think the surface we look upon is cloud and that the sun in reality is muc
 smaller than the surface we view.