Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-12


Il have been watching the star called the
Winking Demon" said the astronomer. as he
extended his hand to pull the reporter upon the
roof. "These autumn mornings are little
chilly, but the air is so deliciously pure and
clear that one doesn't mind if it bites little.
Besides, it is worth the risk of catching cold to
see the Demon wink. You are just in time to
watch him as he gradually reopens his eye. If
You had come few minutes earlier you might
have seen him shut It,
where is this remarkable demon starr"
"There, almost overhead at this hour If you
want to point him out to your friends you have
only to observe that he is little south Of that
bending row of stars that marks the constella-
ton Perseus. and that there 9 little group
of smaller stars near him. Now, you see. his
light is pretty faint. but not SO faint as it was a
few minutes ago. In three or four hours his
eve viii be wide open again, and he will shine
as star of the second magnitude. These
winnings Of Algo or the Demon, occur little
oftener than once in three days."
what causes them?"
"Ah. now you come to the strangest thing of
all Is there anything in the appearance OF the
sky, all glittering with stars, that suggests to
your mind that it may be vast cemetery? No.
ridiculous. you say. Very We'll You viii not
dispute that the earth tread is. from one
point of view only vast burying ground. which
erations of men. but of whole races and tribes
of various animals and plants. Just so in the
heavens about us the dead are mingled with the
living. 1t is to my mind the most suggestive
discovery Of modern astronomy that the uni
verse is full of dead suns--suns whose light has
gone out, whose fires have been eXtinguislled
and which no longer shed 1ife-giving and life
preserving rays upon the worlds that may be
imagined yet circling in GOODNESS and gloom
about them. What has this to do with the
Why fl.iD r l<,lia
it is generally conceded, though Prof. New
comb seems to dissent. that the variations in
the light OF AlgOl are caused by some huge dark
BODY revolving around it at a frischtful rate of
speed There are other variable stars whose
phenomena can be accounted for in the same
way. In the case of Algol there is evidence
that the dark body is RAPIDLY approaching the
star. drawing nearer with every circle When it
strikes. If it is to strike. who can picture the eX
tent of that catastrophe? Then. indeed that
mysterious dark body will become visible. blaz-
Ing with the light of hundred suns and unable
to escape from the fiery destruction that it has
brought upon the star"
Are there any other dark bodies like this
Known to astronomers"
''Oh. Yes: the great star Sirius is accom-
panied by huge body of the kind. 1t is not al
together dark, for with large telescopes it can
occasionally be seen TlimmeFing family close to
the star. Astronomers knew it was there be-
fore they got glimpse of it. for it caused dis
Another of these dark bodies which astrono-
mers are sure exists. although no human eye
ever saw it. is DIGGING the star Procyon. one of
the brightest in the sky. You may see the star
now low down in the east. north of Sirius ana
below the Twins. The invisible body that hoyers
about it is evidently of large size, for it causes
considerable perturbations in the stars motion.
1t may once have been sun as brilliant rs
PrOcyOn itself. but now not ray comes from
It, Still. astronomers can point out the changes
IN its position; as its attraction pulls the star
now this way and now that.
''lf space is filled with these mysterious dark
bodies, collisions between them and living. or
light giving, suns are not impossible. You
know that our sun is in rapid motion. carrying
his family of worlds along with him in his flight.
So all the stars are instinct with motion. Our
lives are SO short and their distances are so
great that we can hardly appreciate these mo-
tons, yet they are swift beyond comprehension.
Some of the stars are approaching. others rece-
ding. all moving in some direction. The con-
stellatiOns whose forms are SO familiar to us are
falling to pieces like card houses. In a few
thousand years there will be no Great Dipper.
no Orion with his club. no Southern Cross. The
heavens would look like new universe to one
OF Us who revisited the earth in the ten thous-
andth century. Now. five suppose that there
are as many dark or dead suns as there are liy
ing ones. it is not difficult to believe that Occa-
siOnaily there might be collisions between them.
OF course. the chances against any such collision
would be very. very great and yet some of tue
cases OF stars that have suddenly b!azed out
with astonishing brilliancy and then dsap-
peared. may be accounted for in this way To
snow you that there is no eXaggeration in
what l am saying about the multitude of dead
suns in the universe see what Sir John Lub-
book said in his inaugural address at the meet
ing of the British Association in August LAST
1.-The floor ofheaven is not only thick inlaid
with patnes Of bright gold but studded also
with extinct stars, once probably as brilliant as
our own sun. but now dead and cold as Helm
boitZ tells us that our sun itself will be some
100000 years hence"
But we need not wander Off in space in
search Of the slly's untombed dead. We have
right at hand. circhng about our own earth. not
an extinct sun. but dead world The moon is
dead and has been dead these million years
There the astronomer. if he fancies himself the
worlds surgeon may study the effects OF
maiady that no surgery could cure. Even
worlds and suns, like men and women. grow
old and die; but unlike men and women. they
have no grave but the open and boundless
heavens
lad Tus