Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-10-26

sure that cOllisiOns must occur between
great masses moving through space as
II is that ships, steered without intel
ligencc 90 prevent collision. could not
crUss and recrOss the Atlantic for thou
sands Of years with immunity from col
lision." Undoubtedly the chance OF an
encounter between pair Of heavenly
bodies selected ut random is tritling,
almost beyond the power of computa-
ton, and the intervals of time between
such catastrophes in that part Of the
heavens subject TO human observation
must be on the average enormous; but
/ yet, in infinite time and unbounded
space somewhere or other now, some
! time or other hcrc-such things are hap
Pening. or will come TO pass.
II ever two great worlds do really
meet in this way. II l. possible To pre-
diet some of the consequences. To
use the technical language OF science:
- their energy of molar motion will be
converted into variou' forms of molec-
ular and potential energy" which,
translated into the vcrnacular, means
that there will &c evolution of heat and
I light. while. ut the same time, the solids
/ present will be wholly or in part
! liqu,iied. the Ii piids vapOrized, and the
vapOrs and gases rarilicd and expand
cd. The intensity of the act ON will
| depend. If course, manly upon the
mass and swiltnrSs If the colliding
bodies; but an easy calculation shows
that II our earth were ever 30 meet
another globe Ike herself. aud moving
with the same velocity, heat enough
would be- generated BY the shock to
transform them both Into huge ball Of
Ivapor; unless. indeed. the .central core
Tof the earth j. much colder and more
refractory than usually supposed. At
any rate the quantity of heat developed
would Du stlAicient 20 melt, boil and
completely vapOrize . mass Of fee fully
700 times that Of both the colliding
worlds an ice planet 10000 miles in
diameter. a -
IL. however, IN, impinging masses
we're. To begin with, mainly gaseous.
(as the sun seems 10 bel. the effect
might be curiOudy different Heat
would, Of course b. generated, Just as
in the case Of solil bodies; but, a.
consequence. apparcutly most paradox
teal. the resulting nebula might actually
BE- cooler than either the bodies before
the en- 'Ountcr; Of course, il would be
Immensely eNpandcdFin volume. Just
a. n gaseous mass. contracting under
IT, own gravity from loss OF heat DIV
radiation at it, surface. continunlly
rises ia temperature, so n similar mass,
expanding against its own gravity from
accession of heat within. NAV fall IN
temperature, nay, must fall. il the BODY
Is composed of '.perfect'' gas. or
course, Observation-Disclosures the collision.
aud before the ultimate expansion of.
bulk was attained, the temperature and
brlliancr of the mass WOULD be for a
Tim" vastly increased, but the final ro-
suit would b. as stated.
In preceding paragraph II was said
That we have not ON the Astronomical
records u single certain instance of any
collisions between bodies of considerable
silc. But there have bccn several cases
at n most remarkable phenomenon,
which, perhaps, may owe its explana-
tiOn tO such encounters. Stars never
before visible. or else known only rs
faint and minute, have suddenly blazed
out. shining sometimes with the brill
fancy OF Sirius, or even Venus, and
afterwarl faded away To their original
insigniiicance. Such was the famous
star of l572, so carefully observed by
Tycho Brahu. As recently rs 1896, and
again i'm 1876, similar things have hap
pcncd, though these later stars were
less conspicuous. The star of 1876 Tin
the constellation of Cygnus) had long
been known and catalogued as n tele-
scOpic star of the ninth magni-
tudc. with nothing TO distinguish
II from any of the common
herd. On November 20 il suddenly
shonc out rs bright rs the pole star.
schmidt, of Athens, who discovered il,
had been observing that very region of
the sky only four DAYS before, and no
such object was then visible. The in
/ terycuing days were cloudy, so that we
can not tell precisely the hour when IL
/ first b!a,cd up, but evidently its in
crease of brightness must have been cx-
| trcmUlv rapid. Immediately after
SchmidCs observation IL began to fade,
\ but IL was two weeks before IL fell be-
low the sixth magnitude and became
Y invisible to the naked eve, and il was
more than year before il resumed its
original faintness. Its whole course
was carefully watched with the spectro-
scope. At first, and for some months,
like the star Of 1866, il showed conspic-
u1us in its spectrum the lines of hyarol
\ gen, together with other linss OF uncer-
tain origin. As its brightness decreased
The hydrogen lines faded still more rap
| idly. leaving other lines more pronii-
nrnt, until ~ last the spectrum, in
stead Of becoming that of an ordinary
star. tame ~ consist simply of three
bright lines. the spectrum OF n nebnla.
aud .it cOntinues such 70 this day.
\ Whether this is or is not the same spec
trum II had before che outburst no one
can say, n il had ucvcr been observed
with the spcctroscqpe before.
[ Now l am verN far from asserting
thar this was case of collision; and
/ yet IL j. clear enough that the whole
course of phenomena was very much
what might have been expected II Il
were. At any rate, the Collision hypotls
Csis Is held and defended by several as
trunomcrs of authority. and the princf-
pal reason forprcferring n different pos
siblc explanation lies in the fact thar
these temporary star" as they ar0
called. are far too common To be proba-
bly dtUs On, stellar encounters. I'VE
have on record eight since the Chris
tiau era, and no less than three OF them
since 1870 fa----
III - harulN necessary 10 say that II
any retinne OF planets attends such a
star its sudden blaze can not fail To
carry disaster and destruction to an
lie upon them. We can conceive Tho
forms Of life may be possible under an
most ans Imaginable physical c0ndi-
tons, provided only Tie course Of
ev'nis by which they have been reached
has been gradualenough to allow the nee
essary adaptations. One would not dare
To deny the possibility of life of some kind
on tho airlcsS moon, or even on the sun
itself. But all we know nlalles it GER
tain that no planetary life could survive
the tremendous and catastrophe change
Of conditions involved in a sudden thou
sand-fold increase of the solar radia-
/ ton.
Thus far we have been considering
only collisions of stellar masses. But