The Penn's Grove record., 1882-02-18
laru.r. 40 II NAV be that, though

not larger. 90 It may be that, though
the surface Of Sirius gives out 20 much
more light than the surface Of the sun,
1t may yet not be much larger.
Still IL seems reasonable TO suppose
that a sun which Is so much more re-
splendent than our W has 8 much
greater surface. / do not think We
shall be very far wrong If we suppose
that the surface of Sirius is BOT more
than twice az lustrous as that Of our
sun. Now, in order that yeu may see
how large Sirius is compared with the
great earth on which we live, l may
mention that the planet Jupiter is the
giant Of the solar system, exceeding
our earth in size even more, but not
much more than the sun exceeds Jupi-
ter. Suppose that Jupiter Is repre-
scented by a ball one inch in diameter,
then the earth on which we live would
be represented by a ball rather less
than a tenth OF an inch in diameter,
the sun by a ball some ten inches in
diameter, and Sirius by a globe nearly
three yards In diameter, according to
the small size 1 have given him, but
more than five and one half yards
in diameter, according to Sir John
Herschel's estimate.
There is yet another way OF forming
an idea Of the vast size Of that globe
which yet, owing to its enormous dis
lance, looks like q bright point in our
skies. The moon travels at a distance
from the earth Of nearly 240, 900 miles,
so that the entire span OF the moons
orbit il about $50, 900 miles. Now the
diameter of the sun is about $40, 900
miles, so that II the earth were set at
the centre of the sun, and the moon
travelling at its present distance from
her, the whole Of the moons orbit
would lie far within the globe OF the
sun.
1t may seem surprising, but, 1t is
true, that although astronomers have
not been able to see, still less TO meas
ure the globe of Sirius, they have yet
learned what 1t is made of-at any
rate, they know some of its materials.
For instance, they know quite GER
tainly that there Is iron In it Gn the
form of gas), and sodium and magne-
stun, and there are also enormous
quantities of the gas called hydrogen.
How this has been learned / could not
very well explain here. l shall only
say thatthe study Of the light ofSirius
has been shown, that part of the light
given out by his glowing orb is cut off
by certain vaper-much as part of the
suns light Is cut off by vapor in our
own air when the sun Is rising or set
ting, and just as tn ruddy color of the
SUI at that time shows him to be
shining through the vapor of water in
the air, so do certain peculiarities In
the light of Sirius show that light has
passed through the vapor of iron, SOL
dium-magnesium and hydrogen.
1t has been learned also that Sirius
is rushing through space at the rate of
from twenty to thirty miles in every
second of time. He carries along with
him, no doubt, all the worlds which
travel round his globe. But it must
not be supposed that this rapid motion
changes his place among the stars
in a way we can easily recognize.
On the contrary, so enormous is this
suns distance that his change of
place can only be detected by the means
of very powerful telescopes, or else
after long periods of time.
And this leads me to consider q sim
gular discovery which has been MADE
about this glorious sun. OF eoarsei 1t
is to be supposed that Sirius, like cur
sun, has a family of worlds travelling
round him. This set observers look
ing for any companion body which
might travel round Sirius. For they
saw that any such body to explain
the movements of Sirius, must be
very large, though of course they
expected only to find 1t much fainter
than Sirius himself. However, for a
long time they could find no such
companion. At last a nne telescope
with a glass eighteen and one-half
inches in diameter, made by the cele-
brated optician, Alvin Clarke, of
Cambridge, Mass, showed q faint star
close by Sirius-that is, seemingly
close, for in reality 1t was found to be,
at the very least, 1000 millions of
miles from him. Later, the French
astronomer Goldschmidt, with a much
smaller telescope, claimed to have de-
tected i've other companion stars, and
1 WAS recently told by Prof. Pritchett
Of Glasgow, NO., that, with a fine
twelve-inch telescope by Alvin Clarke
he had e e two of these. He could
not understand, however, how Gold
schmidt could have seen them with
q smaller telescope, as they were
among the faintest stars he had been
able to detect with his powerful instru-
ment. If these companion stars are
really worlds attending Sirius and
shining only by reflected light they
must be enormous bodies. The sys-
tenn of Sirius must in that case as far
surpass in size and magnifcence the
system travelling around our sun
as the sun himself is surpassed in
glory and in might by the splendid
sun we call the dog-star.