The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1886-01-20
The New Star.

brightest part of the great nebula of An
dromeda; interesting because OF the rar-
ity OF the phenomenon, and because of
the stars nearly central position in a
well known and much-studied nebula
The first public announcement of it's dis
covery was made on August 3lst, by
Hartwig of Dorpat, but it had been seen
by him as early as August Goth, and one
day earlier, August 10Th, by Ward OF
Belfast. 1t was certainly not visible on
August 10Th. 1t nearly if not quite
reached its maximum brilliancy on Au.
gust Goth, one day after its discovery
and has since gradually faded away, with
slight fluctuations, until its light is now
less than one one hundredth of what it
then possessed. When at its brightest
it was Just visible to the naked eye. In
this respect it fell far behind most of the
temporary stars of which we have record
The star of 1872 was bright enough to
be seen at midday in full sunlight, and
all the others except two were as bright
as third magnitude. Most observers say
that the form and relative brightness of
the different parts of the nebula are I'M
changed. Hartwig says that at first the
star was surrounded by bright white
nebulosity, which disappeared before the
announcement of the discovery of the
stranger. Afterward it was like an or
binary star In appearance, except that its
color was little more ruddy than is
common. The spectroscope shows us
that the source of light is highly.heated
solid or liquid body, with possibly faint
indications of glowing gas about it. The
new stars of 1866 and 1876, the only
others to which the spectroscope has been
applied, showed, in addition to the con-
tlnuous spectrum from a solid or liquid
body, very brilliant spectrum of bright
lines, indicating the presence of immense
quantities of incandescent hydrogen and
other gases.
The ascertained facts in the case do
not warrant the construction of a theory
completely accounting for these new
stars. Aside from the evidence afforded
by the spectroscope, about all we know
Is that there is a sudden and enormous
increase OF brllllancy ina star previously
invisible or very faint, and that the light
fades away gradually but irregularly.
The cause OF all this must be sudden
and very great evolution of heat. But
when we seek to find an explanation for
this, we are forced to fall back upon con-
lecture, sustained it is true by more or
less complete analogies, but not to be
taken as the final explanation without
further confirmation.
One hypothesis explains the heating by
a collision between stars, the sudden stop
ping of their motion causing a violent
evolution of heat, sufficient probably to
account for the phenomenon. The same
result would be produced by the passage
of star through nebula, whether gas
eous or condensed into a cloud of solid
or liquid particles, as seems to be the
case with the nebnla in Andromeda ::
and owing to the immense extent of
nebula, this would be much more likely
to happen than collision between stars.
Every meteor and shooting star is an in
stance of collision on a small scale, and
1t is not improbable that among the
myriads of stars more important coils.
IONS occasionally occur. Another n.y.
pothesis accounts for these new stars by
a violent interruption of the cooling pro
cess which we know must be going on
in every star. Zollner thinks that as the
star gradually loses heat by radiation, it
becomes covered by crust scarcely, il
at all, luminous, which conceals the still.
glowing mass within. By sort of vol
canio outburst this crust is broken up
and 9w series of chemical compounds
formed with great evolution of heat and
light. Lohse thinks that the change
which causes the appearance of new
star takes place at much earlier stage
In the cooling process. AS soon as the
temperature has fallen to a point where
chemical combination is possible between
elements forming considerable proper
tion of the whole mass, such combina.
ton takes place with explosive violence,
giving rise to an immense increase OF
heat and light. According to this the
DRY the cooler stars should be more apt
to be variable; and we know by obser.
walton that this Is the case with the red
stars, which, on account of their color,
are presumably comparatively cool. Also
on our sun we have sun spots and CASE
Gus outbursts.
The hypothesis of collision and that OF
chemical combination both explain pretty
well the observed phenomena, and it
seems impossible to decide between them
in the present state Of our knowledge.
One thing is reasonably certain the new
star is not the Star of Bethlehem. %
There is no evidence that it ever appear
ed before.-Ne10 Princeton Review.