The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1881-05-20
SUNS.
The Distance from the Earth TO the
sun and the Fixed Stars-The
Space Full OF TuEnult.

The Distance from the Earth TO the
sun and the Fixed Stars-The
Space Full OF Tumult.
Prof. Richard A. Proctor is delivering
a course of astronomical lectures in New
York. The following Is a synopsis of
one of them. Tho subject of the dis
course was The Sun and His Brother
Suns" The speaker said, in part:
When We look at the stars, on calm,
clear night, when all the myriad of stars
are shining, the least thoughtful mind
is impressed with the idea that 4 solemn
calm reIgns there. One is inclined to
believe that all those suns are in a state
of perfect rest. The astronomer, how
ever, sees that they move. They have
several different movements. These,
however, are only apparent. The turn
ing of the earth upon its axis, and its
movement around the sun cause these
movements to appear. The astronomer
recognizes the stars as in one sense still
or fixed. But the star depths are full
of tumult. Go into some mandatory
where a mass ofmachinery is in motion,
where there is a scene .pf great energy
and noise. 1t is absolutely nothing,
compared with what is going on in the
depths OF space. We are able to
understand this, when we know that the
stars are so far away. The nearest OF
the stars lies at such distance that our
own sun, set beside it, would seem 10 be
an ordinary star, of The second magni-
magnitude. The star which is
considered nearest to US Is
Alpha Centauri. l think am justified
in saying that it is the only one whose
distance from the earth is absolutely
known. For instance, No. 81 of the
constellation of the Swan is said to be
second in distance from US. Its distance
is sand, by some, TO be three times as
great as that of the nearest star, which
lies twenty millions of millions of miles
from US. An American astronomer,
Peters, makes it only twice as far
Hence, between the two calculations
there is an error of at least ten millions
of millions of miles.
The trouble is, that astronomers can
not get space enough to work upon.
No base line can be obtained of suffi-
cient length for the calculation by TRAN
gulation of such enormous distances.
But we know that these stars lie so far
away that the sun would be a small star
beside one of them. The sun is not a
star of the first magnitude, but we shall
take him for specimen star. As, in the
last lecture, the earth tells US the history
of planet, SO the sun can tell us what
will be the history of q star. Sirius is
far larger than the sun. He lies at least
four times as far away from the earth as
the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. That
star removed to the same distance from
US, would shine with only one-siXteenth
of its light. But as he is four times as
large he shines with sixty
four times the light of that
star. He also gives 200 times as
much light as the sun. If from square
mile of SIRIUS we get the same amount
of light as we do from a square mile of
the sun, then he must be 200 times as
large as the sun. If. then, we are TO
take our sun as q sample of the great suns
that are scattered broadcast through
space, let us carefully consider him.
In the first place, the sun lies at dis
fance of between 92, 200, GOO and 99 ,O00,-
600 miles from the earth. A train of
cars going at the rate of twenty miles
an hour would be 500 years in traveTs-
ing that enormous distance. A cannon
ball shot from a Krupp gun would be
thirteen years, if il could maintain the
same rate of speed throughout the en-
tire distance. Even light, which travels
with velocity wholly beyond concep-
ton, takes eight and onc-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 can travel in eight and one
quarter minutes, which is 5000 miles.
And this leads us to the important
thought that, if gravity travelled at only
the same rate, the whole solar system
would be thrown out of gear. The
planets would have their paths so
widened that they would not get the
right amount of heat and light from the
sun. Hence, gravity traYerses distance
at rate infinitely greater than the We
locity of light.
The sun is tremendous body. five
were on the sun the gravity would crush
US fiat. It's light and heat are wonder
full. The electric light has only one.
| third the average lustre of the suns sur
face. A square inch of the suns sur
face would give 800 times as much, and
| the entire sun one quadrillion times as
much light as an electric light. We in
quire whence the sun gets his power of
making heat. It was once supposed
that the sun was fire. But even if IT
were of the best burning substance. il
would be used up in 5000 years. The
latest theory is that the suns heat is de-
| rived from its own crawling power, ex-
erted on its own mass. The suns age
| is another question. The age of the
earth proves that he must be very old
but he should have shrunk more. /
| think the sun is not what he seems.
| think the surface welook upon is clouds,
and that the sun is really much smaller
than the surface we view.
The lecturer then exhibited upon the
screen pictures showing the surface of
the sun under different conditions, as IL
Illustrative of the theories advanced.
Pictures were shown of the great spots,
as illustrating the theory that the visible
surfaie of the sun is only an incasement
of clouds of molten metals. Pictures
were also shown of the jets of flame
which are visible through the telescope,
and the spectra of the sun and OF other
stars were compared. Illustrations OF
clusters of suns in the "star-depths''
were also exhibited.