Connecticut western news., 1881-04-13
THE SUN AND HIS BROTHER SUNS.
Professor Proctor tells us about the Distance from the Earth to the Sun and the Fixed Stars.

Professor Proctor tells us about the
 Distance from the Earth to the Sun
 and the Fixed Stars.
 Professor Richard A. Proctor, in g
 lecture, the subject of which was, s'The
 Sun and His Brother Suns," said
 When we look at the skies on 8 calm,
 clear night. when all the myriads o1
 stars are shining, the least thoughtful
 mind is impressed with the idea that 6
 solemn calm reigns there. One is in.
 cEned to believe that all those suns are
 in state of perfect rest. The as.
 tronomer, however, sees that they move.
 They have several different movements.
 These, however, are only apparent.
 The turning of the earth upon its axis
 and its movement around the sun cause
 these movements to appear. The as-
 tronomer recognizes the stars as in one
 sense still or fixed. But the star depths
 are full of noise and tumult. Go into
 some manufactory where mass of ma
 chinery is in motion, where there is a
 scene of great energy and noise. It 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 all the stars lies at such distance that our own sun, set beside 1t, would seem to be an ordinary star of the second magnitude. The star l VxyE,T TnE TcyO 4l,o~ 1 Alpha Centauri. think I am justified in saying that it is the only one whose distance from the earth is absolutely known. For instance, No. 61 of the constellation of the Swan is said to be the second in distance from us. Its distance is said by some to be three times as great as that of the nearest star, which lies twenty millions of mil lions of miles from us. An American astronomer, Peters, makes 1t only twice as far. Hence, between the two calcu- lations 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 sufficient length for the calculation by triangula- tion of such enormous distances. But we know that these stars lie so far away that the sun would be small star beside one of them. The sun is not star of the first magnitude, but we shall take him as a specimen star. As, in the last lecture, the earth told us the history of a planet, so the sun can tell us what will be the history of the 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 Gen. taurl. That star removed to the same distance from us would shine with only one-sixteenth of his light. But as he is four times as large he shines with sixty four times the light of that star. He also gives two hundred times as much light as the sun. If from square mile of Sirius we get the same amount of light as we do from square mile of the sun, then he must be two hundred times as large as the sun. If then we are to take our sun as a sample of the great suns that are scattered broadcast through space, let us carefully consider him.
 In the first place the sun lies at 8 distance of between 92, 900, ,OOO and 93,- GOO, 900 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 thir- teen years, if it could maintain the same rate of speed throughout the entire dis tance. Even light, which travels with a velocity wholly beyond concep tion, 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 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 l planets would have their paths so widened that they would not get the right amount of heat and light from the sun. Hence gravity traverses the ] distance at rate infinitely greater than | the velocity of light.
 The sun is tremendous body. If | we were on the sun gravity would crush | us flat. Its light and heat are wonder l full. The electric light has only one- third the average lustre of the suns surface. A square inch of the suns surface would give three hundred times as much, and the entire sun one quad rillion times as much as an electric light We inquire 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 sub- stance it would be used up in 5000 years. The latest theory is that the suns heat is derived from its own gravi- tating power exerted on its own mass,
 A Sensible Dinner Giyer.
 When a man wants tO piva a hip din l