Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-01-12
THE EARTH AND THE STARS.

THE EARTH AND THE STARS.
Very few young readers really know
how large this round world is on which
we live. Suppose we make a few fig
ures to help them. A cubic mile of
earth would require one thousand men
working briskly day and night for one
hundred years to shovel it over. And
how many are there of such blocks of
earth in our globe? If man had be-
gun to count the cubic miles in the days
when Adam and Eve were in the Gar
den of Eden, and had counted day and
night, one a second, ever since, through
all the rise, fall and decay of kingdom
and empires, he would not yet have COM
pleted the task. Such is the magnitude
of the globe.
How does it compare in size with
other heavenly bodies? Take the sun,
for example, which is more than mill
ion times as large as the earth. 1t
would require the swiftest lightning ex-
press train three years, day and night. to
cross the face of the sun. The man who
commenced counting the cubic miles of
the sun in the days of Adam would not
yet have performed a millionth part CT
his task.
How is it about the fixed stars? The
distances of several of the nearest have
been determined, and if they are as
bright as the sun, we may estimate the
size. We have reason to believe they
are about as bright as the sun, because
the spectroscope shows that their light
is produced by nearly the same sub
stances. Taking this, therefore, as
granted, Sirius, one of the nearer ones,
is three thousand times as large as the
sun; and the North Star (Polaris) is a
thousand times as large. Let us make,
therefore, another attempt at figures.
If every inhabitant at present on the
face of the earth should begin to count
the cubic miles in Sirius, each one count
ing one second, and going on day and
night ten thousand years, a large por-
ton of the job would remain unfinished!
This is not mere fiction-it is substan-
tial fact. What is there to prevent the
existence of such large bodies? There
is plenty of room in space.
The writer remembers when boy an
eloquent discourse, in which the speak
er used this comparison to show the
great distances of the stars: IS If the
dove which returned no more to Noah
had been then commissioned on an err
rand to the nearest fixed star, it would
still be on its journey; after travelling
for forty successive centuries through
the heights of space, it would not have
yet reached the middle of its destined
way" This was very safe and mod
crate estimate, made before the real dis
tances of the stars had been determined.
Let us take another since their remote
ness has been ascertained. We look up
any clear evening and see the North
Star in the blue sky. If cannon ball
could have been shot towards it from the
Garden of Eden, and had. been flying
with its swiftest velocity ever since, it
would have passed over only one thou
sandth part of its course, several mill
ion years being required to complete the
journey.
No one who knows how these dis
tances were determined will doubt for
a moment their approximate accuracy.
As the earth swings around yearly in its
orbit, and in each half year moves away
SO,OOO,OO0 miles from its place six
months before, remote object seen
from both points would appear in a diff
ferent direction from the two places.
But for a long series of years astrono-
mers could see no difference, from the
two points, in the position of any Of the
fixed stars. They did not appear to
change their places an atom. Powerful
telescopes were employed with no bet
ter results. But modern improvements
in making instruments of extreme ac-
curacy have shown an actual change in
position, corresponding with the mighty
circuit made by the earth around the
sun. The following are some of the re-
suits thus determined, the sun being
81 ,O00,OOO of miles from us:
Star 81 Cygni is $4,000 times as far as the sun.
do Alpha Lyrsn ,337 600 do do
DO DO s aretarus, 1,esa, DO DO
do Capelia, 4,4s4,0Oo do do
Multiply any of these numbers by o.
100000, the distance of the sun, and
their real remoteness in miles is at once
determined. There is nothing to pre-
vent such distances-there is an infin-
tie amount of room. And, being so far
off, we may well understand how great
must be their magnitude to be seen
through such an immensely of space.
The light of the sun (and doubtless of
these stars) is about sixty times as
bright as an oxyhydrogen or Drummond
light, or magnesium light of equal
size; and three times as bright as the
most intense electric light. Bearing
this fact in mind, let us look up at the
North Star and remember that it is so
large that it would require swift ex-
press train thirty days, day and night,
to cross its face-and then we may well
understand at what an incomprehensi-
BILE distance such a vast and dazzling
globe must be placed to become mi
mute. twinklino point. sean onlv in t,,e