Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1883-02-10

GROOM BRIDGE 1880.
A Celestial Nvanderer that Needs 90 be
Looked After.

q space at Such rate OF speed tina the at.
( traction of all the bodies of the universe
can never stop 1t. NewtOn's first law of
motion is that "a body once set in
motion and acted on by no force, will
move forever in a straight line and with
a uniform velocity forever Groom
bridge 1880 is body which has come in
at one part of the borders of the universe
and having found the attraction of all
the vast masses of suns, among which
our own Is but as mote in the light, to
be practically mo force" speeds on its
way with velocity which in Prof ST.
mon NewcOmb's own words, will, within
two or three million years, carry il be-
| yond "the extreme limit, to which the
telescope has never penetrated. BY this
d it is meant not merely that 1t will pass
beyond the stars, many as they are, and
at absolutely incalculable distances as
by far the greater number Of them are,
but a handful. All of them are within
or close to the galaxy of which the solar
system forms part. The streak of
light in the heavens which we call the
Milky Way, appears as it does only be-
cause the galactic region is circular
disk, the diameter of which is eight or
ten times its thickness. The sun with
the earth is near the center of the disk,
so that when we look toward the circum-
| ference OF 1t, we see the stars crowded
together, while, when we look at the fiat
side OF 1t, they are comparatively few
and scattered. The Milky Way is what
we see when our eyes turn toward the
circumference. If the earth was a
transparent ball, man at the center
would see the Milky Way as belt run
ming completely around it. The star
GrOOmbridge 1880 is not only on its way
past all these visible stars, but it will 90
beyond them and pass among and
through the region of nebul@, by which
the disk is surrounded, for the nebule
are in all probability but collections of
glowing gas the substance of which,
according to a generally received theory,
suns and worlds are made. -
NO other star is known to astronomers
which has proper motion so great as
that which Is bearing Groom5ridge 1880
on its way through infinite space, and
which Is not less than 200 miles per sec
of what produced it. AS has already
been said, an application of Newton's
first law of motion shows that the at
traction of the whole universe of stars
is absolutely mo force" to it. The star
acts as if it had once been set in motion
to 90 on at q uniform rate of velocity |
forever, either alone in space or from |
some other distant universe" of which |
nothing Is and nothing ever can be |
known, towards some other universe, |
compared with which our own is not |
even as cloud of dust. In such mat |
ter as this an original impetus Is out of |
the question. In the starry heavens |
masses fall-they are not driven; as the |
moon constantly falls toward the earth, |
so the planets constantly fall toward the |
sun. In other words, gravitation act |
thrOugOut the universe wherever there
is matter 1t is subject to this law, and |
therefore it is evident that this great star
wherever 1t came from and wherever it
is going to, it is doing It's work in
obedience to the law of attraction. A |
recent speculation may give an indica-
tiOn of what the giant star is on its way
to accomplish, and this work is nothing
more or less than the redistribution Of
the matter of some other universe than
ours, which redistribution may have a
serious effect upon the universe Of which
we are part and parcel. The effect will
be remote enough in time. and yet 1t is
not by any means impossible that 1t may
be felt long tefOre the limit of years has
signed to the star for its disappearance
from telescope vision. Action and re-
action are equal, and in opposite direc-
tions. If GrOOmbridge 1880 be moving
towards some other great mass, the other
is moving towards it, possibly with
equal and possibly with greater violence
and If the whole mass Of the heaven of
stars in our galaxy cannot arrest the
path of the one 1t can hardly have any
effect upon the other. In other words,
our little universe need not be cOnsid-
cred at all as factor in the problem.
The speculation which has Just been
spoken of is founded on the nebula the
DRY which is grounded solely in physics.
The result of the theory is well known
to be that suns will clash with suns, the
heat resulting from the impact being
sufficient to disperse the matter of which
they consist through space nearly, but
not quite, equal to that which 1t occupied
when the suns began to form. The pro-
cess of condensation will then begin
anew and gradually form body equal
in mass to the sum of the suns which
took place in the collision. The volume,
Of course will be greater than any of the
individual suns. Collision after cOllis-
ion and subsequent condensation will
take place until, at remote distance,
two enormous bodies alone will remain,
which will then begin to gravitate to-
ward each other with constantly accel-
Grating velocity until they meet and
sufficient heat results to make the whole
universe nebula such as 1t is supposed
to have been at first. And so, for one
long swing Of the pendulum Of eternity,
actum est de homine. The star Groom
bridge 1880, runaway, a stranger to
this poor universe Of ours, is supposed to
be in this relation to some other star,
one of two such great masses built up of