The Arkansaw traveler. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1882-1???, 1888-11-24
Assrononical Facts.

The CFGRomesrid Nora, of Arye.
landa, gave the positions of the lucid
stars OF the northern sky, and 1t hal
been supplemented by the UrGMome.
tSTd ArQeatiSsd of DIR. Gould, which
covers the southern sky. With the
stellar statistics of the whole sky be-
fore him, DIR. Gould was In q position
to draw some extremely interesting
conclusions with respect to the ar
rangeulent of the brighter stars In
space, and to the situation OF our solar
system In relation to them. The out
line of his reasoning Is given by q
writer in ScyibRey's. In the frat
place it is fairly proved that In gen.
eral the stars that are visible to the
naked eye (the lucid stars) are dis
tributed At approximately equal die.
tances one from another and that, on
the average, they are OF approx imately
equal brilliancy. Ii we make q table
of the number OF stars OF each separate
magnitude in the whole sky we shall
find that there are proportionately
many more of the brighter ones (trom
first to fourth magnitndes) than oil
the fainter (from fourth to seventh
magnitudes). That is, there Is an un-
failing and unsy stematlc excess of the
observed number OF the brighter stars.
We cannot suppose, taking one star
with another, that the difference be-
tween their apparent brightness arises
simply from real difference In size, bu
we must conclude that the stars from
the first to fourth magnitudes (some
50o) are really nearer to us than the
fainter stars. 1t therefore follows that
these bright stars form a system,
whose separation from that of those
of the fainter stars Is marked by the
change of relative numerical fire.
quency.
What, then, Is the shape of this sys.
tenn? and have we any dependent proof
of its existencep Sir John Herschel
and DIR. Gould have pointed out that
there Is In the sky belt of bright
stars, which Is very nearly a great
circle of the sphere. This belt |,
plainly marked, and II Is inclined
about so degrees to the milky way
which 1t crosses near Cassiopa andltht
Southern Cross. Taking all the star,
down to the fourth magnitude DIR
Gould shows that they are more sym.
metrically arranged with reference u
this belt than they are with reference
to the milky way. In fact, the belt
has 264 stars on one side OF II and 26a
on the other, while the corresponding
numbers for the milky way are 245
and 282. From this and other reasons
It Is concluded that this belt contains
brighter stars because IL contains the
nearest stars, and chat this set OF
nearer and brighter stars Ia distinct
lively the cluster to which our sun be-
longs. Leaving out the brighter stars
which may be accidentally projected
among the true stars belonging to this
cluster, DIR. Gould concludes that our
sun belongs 10 cluster OF about 40O
stars; that 1t lies In the principal
plane Of the cluster (since the belt OF
stars Is great, not q small. circle),
and that this solar cluster is independ-
ent of the vast congeries of stars,
which we call the milky way.
We know that the sun L. moving In
space. 1t becomes a question whether
this motion 10 one common to the solar
cluster and TO the sun, or only the mo-
ton OF the sun In the solar cluster.
But a very important research will
be to investigate the solar motion with
out employing these 400 stars as data.