The Arizona sentinel., 1886-11-13
.C0LoRED STARS.
Supposed. to Be Suns in Different
 -.. Life-Stages.

Llfe-Stages.
 It is strangely impressive thought,
 when we look at, the istar-sttewn sky,
 that each. one of the seeming points of light we see is sun akin to our own, a mighty orb governing a family of de- pendent orbs, pouring light upon them, nourishing tKem with its heat in fine, the great central engine of a vast mech anism, whose ..rhrobs .are as the life pulsatjons ofa system of worlds.
 But while we are thus impressed by the consideration. that each star is a sun, such as our own, we are scarcely less, struck by the thought that each one of these suns has its own. special char acter and qualities Not only does one star differ from another in.glory, which might well be, even if they were all really. alike-for difference of distance would. make some seem brighter and others fainter-but in size, in might, in structure, in sthe very quality of the light which they em-t, those myriads of suns differ, from eacA other, and fro m that particular sun about which we knOk-most, because it is tlie nearest our owl, s.i,
 To ordinary. observation. there is but onexqualify in. which the stars differ from each other, namely. in color. It is this differences of wh oh I am now about to write. To an eyewhich iskeen to recognize differences of color, the stars. shIne with obviously different tints. Everyone can recognize the marked ruddiness of AIdebaran, the bright star in she Bulls Eye, and of Antares, the star which marks the heart of the Scor- pion. Arcturus is rather orange-tinted than red, and, to my.eye, so also is Betelgssssa -the' bright star which marks the right shoulder -7of-fhe Giant Orion, but some consider this star red:- Again, the Pole star has a decidedly yellow tint, which you recognize also in Ca pella, fhe beautiful star which forms the chief, glorysof the CharioteeE,-AREiga. ProcyOf1, the chief star in the Lesser Dog, is also yellowish.
 Sirjns, the finest star in the heavens. is beautifully white. The ancients spoke ofsit as red, and some have i'm agined that this splendid star must have charged in color; but fancy they only referred to the brilliant red tint shown in spq$lings by Sirius, when near the horizon, Homer speaks of Sirius as shining mostasbeautifuAy ''when laved of Ocean'sswave;;'' that is, when very low down; and our English poet Tenny- son speaks of Sirius as ''bickering into red and emeraldl' when. so situate. The red tint is the most conspicuous. and doubtless led to the star being called red Sirius in ancient times = But it has probably been as white ..aszit is now not only during the few thousands of years over which history extends its. survey, but 1oT thousands of centuries
 P6HQx, one of the two equal stars which adorn the constellation called the TwiHs is yellow, but Castor, the other. is slightly igreenish. The brilliant stars Vega a(chief glory of the Lyre) and Altar, the brightest star of the Eagle, show. somewhat bluish tinge. But none of the stars we see. are really green or blue. And it is worth notic. ing that when we use a telescope, and surveythe depth. of star-strewn space which lie beyond the range of the un- aided eye. we find scarcely any single stars which 'can properly be called green, or.s blue, or yiolet,- or. indigo. But afnong these telescopic stars we find hdndfeds of celQEs belonging to the othersehd-of the rainbow-tinteds streak called the. solar spectrum. There are bright red stars, orange stars, golden yellow stars, and others even more fully eo'ofed;; as, for exahp1e, garnet stars, blood-red stars, and so forth. -
 So far as these seperate 'colored suns are concerned, we may believe that they are smply sGis in different stages of their enormousIy Hlong life There are good feasohs for thinking that tlTe briIE iant white. steel white, bfiish-whlte and greenish-whfte. stars are all: in a ver&Tarly stage of stellar lie. ID. the yeli6hFish stars a certain cooling of the Outer. yapors has given them, it would seem;fa greater power of absorbing the light which comes. from the glow in eeentTaI mass, and so yellowish tiEgeis cast over the light In the oranee. ana sti Gilmore irf the r1ddy and deeply red staiss the pEeeess. .of. cooling has gone SJlil 1dutnef,- anu uBe I0ge CdSU over the light has become more marked. Of cGnrsS'1ssviR be understood rbhat when l $e{k 1t cooling r do n6f mean what wes~sheiild consider co0lnesS- vdPors. which; being cooker. than tlie central mass. absarb, .paJt of iis.ligbt, mtist yet be fan hotter than =whitelhet 1 irdii '.s-isi ss- r--i7y, 'zs'f- ~a'-@- 7>ss-
 Siy' friend ;pr. William Higgins, spsaking of this process of cooling witch. suns must undergo, thfs aging wl,-ch vast though the.peRiods of. their existences), they. must experience, said thSt the time may eoHae when 'out own | sun will have reached the stage through 1 wRch. the red suns. are passing, and | that when that time comes the | le6: urer who tells of the lomg-past time | when our sun was in its yellow stage | may have to be clothed in the skins of | Polar bears to keep life in him, and to | address an audience similarly clothed. | But; for my own part. fancy. the Polar ! bears will be extinct long before that time comes. Yet one word before we leave the ] separate, or single, suns. -Our own |