Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1881-10-27
WINSTON, N. C., THURSDAY, OCTOBER ~ 1881

marked in travelling on railroad
! car that the trees, or objects near
est, seem to pass in a direction op-
posite to that in which we are
moving, and the nearer they are,
the more rapidly they seem to pass,
whilst distant objects on the hori--
zon remain still. This ia precisely
the same effect which ia produced
in space as a result of our annual
movement around the Gun. Only
this difference !; that, although we
move incomparabTy more rapidly
than an express train eleven hum
dred times more rapidly, making
100000 miles per hour-yet the
stars are all SO distant that it is with
difficulty we detect their motion.
Our two hundred millions of miles
Of displacement are almost nothing,
even for the nearest Of them. Could
we transfer ourselves to Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranos or Neptune with
orbits five, nine, nineteen and thir-
ty-fve times larger than that of the
earth, it is evident that the distan-
ces Of fer greater number of stars
could be determined than we are
now able to make out.
It is only since the year 1910
that the distances of a few stars
have become known. The distance
of 81 Cygni was determined by
Bessel IN 1870. Et is more than
thirty-two trlllions of miles from
us. The distance of Alpha Lyre
was announced by Sturve after
1910, as more than one hundred
and twenty trill1ons Of miles from
us. The star nearest to ns is Al
pha Centauri, which is more tha n
twenty trillions of miles away. Sir
ius is the largest fixed starr in
the heavens. 1t is more thar eigll>
ty trillions of miles from US. This
star Is two thousand six hundred
and eighty-eight times larger than
our sun, and is surrounded by a
system OF planets, two at least of
which have been recognized by our
telescopes. The great star Arc
turus is one hundred and fifty trill-
ions of miles from MS, and the Pole
star is three hundred trillions OF
miles off. The star which has at
present the credit of being at the
greatest measurable distance from
the earth is Capella, and it is more
than four hundred and twenty triIl.
ions of miles away. A ray of light
starting from Capella at any gwen
moment reaches the earth seventy
one years later. Fl this star were
destroyed in 1881 we should con
tinue to admire it until tho year
1852 before knowledge of its de-
struction would reach Ms. These
are among the twenty stars whose
distance has been determined and
these are the stars nearest to US.
All the others are sincomparably
more remote. There are stars
whose light only reaches US after a
hundred years, a thousand years,
ten thousand years OF incessant
flight at the rate Of two hundred
thousand miles per second. 10
traverse the sidsreal universe Of
which we form part-the Milky
Way-light employs not less than
fifteen Thousand years. To reach
MS from certain nebu8, it occupies
more than three hundred times
these fifteen Thousand years, or five
millions of years. It may give the
reader some assistance in efforts to
comprehend these immense distan-
ces if we compare a few by writing
the numbers representing them in
figures :;
Miles
Diameter of the earth 1926
Distance of the moon 24O, ,OOC
Distance of sun 92.5OO, ,OOt
Come of 1880 $4,000 OO0, ,OO(
Alpha Csntauri 10000, 900 OOO. 900 .O0(
Sirius $4,000, ,OOO. 900 200 ,0O(
| Capcla 420, 600 200, ,OOO, ,OOO, ,6Ot
When We remember in connec-
ton with these distances, that soHe
of the stars which we see nightly
twinkling in tho depths of space
may be large enough to fill the en-
tire solar system even beyond the
greatest distance of the comet ot
1880, we begin to appreciate the
wonderful pageant discovered BY
sidereaI astronomy Within a few
years. The telescope of Galilee
has done more for the heaven!
above US than the ships of CoIum-
bus for the little speck we call the
earth.
The number of female physi-
clans, having diplomas and all the
benefits ef the schools, is rapidly
increasing. There are now 39(
well-equipped female doctors il