The Weekly Kansas chief., 1881-05-05
SUNS.
The Distance from the Earth 10 the Suu aud
the FIXED stars-The Spaces Fall Of TumuIt.

| Prof. Richard A. Proctor is delivering a course
OF astronomical lectures in New York The fol-
| lowing is synopsis of one of them The sub-
| ject Of the discourse was s.The Sun and His
| Brother Suns" The speaker said in part:
| When We look at the stars, on a calm clear
| night, when all the myriads of stars are shining
the Least thoughtful mind is impressed with the
| idea that solemn calm reigns there One is
inclined to believe that all those suns are in a
state of perfect rest. The astronomer however.
sees that they move. They have several differ
| ent movements. These, however are only an
parent. The turning of the Earth upon its axis
and its movement around the sun cause these
| movements to appear. The astronomer recog-
nlzes the stars as in one still or fixed But
the star depths are full of noise and tumult Go
| into some mandatory where mass Of machin-
cry Is IN motion, where there is n scene of great
| energy and noise. 1t is absolutely nothing com
pared 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 all the stars lies at such n distance
that our own sun, set beside il, would seem to
be an ordinary star, of the second magnitude.
| The star which is considered nearest to us is
| Alpha Centauri. think am justified in saw
| ing that it is the only one whose distance from
| the earth is absolutely known. For instance
No. 6l of the constellation of the Swan is said to
| he the second in distance from u.s. Its distance
| is said, by some, to be three times as great as
| that of the nearest star which lies twenty mill
| ions of millions of miles from us. An American
| IL a
| 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 eau
be obtained of sufficient length for the calcuI,
| ton by triangulatiOn of such enormous distau-
ces. But VIC know that these stars lie so far
| away that the san would be a small star beside
one of them. The sun is not a star of the first
magnitude, but We shall take him as a specimen
ST A. in ria last 81.
| the history of planet, the sun can tell us
what VIII be the history of a star Sirius is far
larger than the sun. He lies at least four times
| as far away from the Earth as the nearest star
Aipha Centauri. That star removed to the same
distance from MS, wOnld shine with only one
sixteenth of his light. But rs 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 a square mile of
| Sirius we get the same amount of light as we do
from a square mile of the SUM- then he must be
2UO times as large as the sun. If then, we are
To take onr sun sample of the great suns
that are scattered broads;lst through space, let
us carefully consider him.
In the first place, the sun lies at a distance of
between y, UOO, 900 and g} 900 900 miles from the
earth \ train of cars going at the rate of twen-
ty miles an hour would he 800 wears in trayers-
ing that enormous distance. A cannon ball shot
from krupp gun would he thirteen wears if il
could maintain the same rate of speed through
out the entire distance. Even light which
travels with a velocity wholly beyond concep-
ton, takes eight and One-Uuarter minutes in
reaching u.s. Hence. the sun is not in the place
where he seems to be. lie is Just as far AWAY
from where he seems to be as he can travel in
eight and one-luarter Minutes which is g. UyO
miles. And this leads 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 wid-ned that they woud not get
thee right amount of heat and light from the
sun. Hence, gravity traverses distance at a rate
infinitely greater than the velocity of light
The sun is a tremendous body. II we were on
the sun, gravity would crush Hat Its light and
heat are wonderful. The electric light has only
one-third the average lustre of the SIMS surface
\ square inch of the suns surface would give
300 times much and the entire sun one quad
rillion times as much light an electric light.
We inquire whence the sun gets his power of
making heat. Ii was once supposed that the
sun was fire. But even if il were of the best
burning substance, it would be used up in 5000
years. The latest theory is that the suns heat
is derived from its own gravitating power, K
eTted on its own mass. The suns age is another
question. The age of the Earth proves that the
sun must be very old; but he should have shrunk
more. think the sun is not what he seems. /
think the surface we look 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 illustrative of the theo-
ries advanced. Pictures were shown of the
great spots, Us illustrating the theory that the
visible surface of the sun is only an incasement
of clouds of mOltes metals. Pictures were also
shown of the jets of flame which arc 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.