, 1888-04-05
II \ Sun CLUSTER.
LIFE IN CONSTELLATION HERCULES
kNEVER ENDING DAY.
\ story which the Tar seeing Astron.
oIuer Reads in the Stars--A Land Of
Perpetual DayIfGht-Thc Light Of
ITftcen Moons.


In fT.. constellation Hercules there Is q
,..r.r.trt star cluster. Wen known TO the
rgy-s.r- If powerful t.Lg-csre- as one Of
The isa.t interesting and wonderful
T,f.r--r-n.rrl fs L. T.-Hi T.. lie heavens.
~ The. naked eve il look, like "a faint star
III ia. f.1,-cnue il ;r-gars az a spherical
mass of stars. with short strag~lin,
streams. also raluuusai IF stars. rauiat:ug
fro-., If. William fcrsChcl computed the
number Of stars in this cluster at not less
than II.Lgi In the center they appear
So ruruur..-yE That It IS impossible 20
count them. OF course every one OF the
member. or this starry swarm is a sun,
and astronomers have sometimes piqucd
their inla.s=r,.ttsn Ey wondering what
r.l,.st be tl.. condition of things prevailing
in -,r,.!, = sv-i,.f.? rf suns. and what results
H3vv from lie inevitable laws Of gruyita-
ton there. Could inhabited worlds exist
in q sun cluster
Take tn. i-f-nt star Sirius. the most
brilliant fixed .s..r IL the heavens ANY
one who w.~aat e...s see Ii in the southern
heavens caf,E III The evening ut this sea
son Various estimates Of the light OF
SIRIUS have made 1t from one twenty
thoUSant-.n!I!unth up to about one five
tLGUSant-uI!.ioHth Of the suns light.
Suppose We adopt the latter figure as be
ing the most favorable 10 Sirius Then
comparing this with the fraction repre-
scntIng the H2ht Of star in Hercules as
seen from It's nearest ncighb0rS in COM
ParIsou with that Of the sun. namely, one
thrCc-million-siZ-hun we
.ld that the light Of the star Is nearly
1,zU0 times as great as the light that Sir
Jus sends to Us. In other words, if we
could visit the cluster in Hercules, we
should find that its stars, rs seen from n
distance of 9.0GO,0GO,JOO miles, their aver
age distance apart, would shine l,4O0
times rs bright as sirius shines in our
sky.
Sirius is probably SOD times rs bright as
the faintest star that the naked eye per-
ceiveS on n clear night Then imagine n
star three times rs much brighter than
Sirius as Sirius is brighter than the
smallest star yOu can see, and you Will
have some notion OF the brillianCy of the
stars in question as seen from one an
other
\ PERPETUAL DAYLIGHT
Now LET rs surpose = world revolving
syrr1,,J :, eto1- aitnatal NJ tJ,n ceptar Of tbo
,X.efe, Nssun,in,, ,j,ot tba eIIrrsrn,Iin0
st,rs are oTrargcJ in :, nrcttv eyn,,nrtT'jrai
way, there would be dozen of them
within distance Of 9,G0O, 200, Geo miles,
and each OF these would, as seen from the
world at the center, appear l,4OO times
| brighter than Sirius appears to us. There
would be upward OF iIty stars twice as
| far away, each OF which would be 500
| timeSsls bright as Sirius. Thus the stars
! OF the cluster, as seen from the center,
would so on increasing in number and di-
minishinS in brightness, but as The total
! number Is limited to l4,OOO or $4,000, the
| outermost stars would be approximately
| 13j, j,OOO, ,OOO,OO0 miles away, and each
would shine six times as bright rs Sirius.
1t is apparent that there would be a
| sort of perpetual daylight at the center of
such n congregation of suns. Let us see
| about how bright this kght would be. OF
course our sUpposititious planet might re-
:eive from the sun to which it belonged as
brilliant n daylight rs our sun gives to
us, but what would be the illumination of
| its nights, or, in other words, of that side
| OF 1t which was turned away from its
! sun? Zoliner has estimated the light of
the sun To be GlS,OOo times as great us
! that of the full moon. This, upon the esti-
mate of the amount Of Sirius light rs
compared with the SUMS that we have
| adopted, would gave the moon about {, ,OOO
| times as much light as Sirius.
EQUAL TO FIFTEEN MOONS.
Since oacb of tho ctors in tba cInsto,
bo, / S00 ito tI,1 Ii,,T,t of c.in;TI- ot q
000 Gn6 G06 T,ilos Jistsnco arII tIaro 40 .
49,, f tI,o,,, ,,;tII; IT. J;lta 80 ~
center II follows tT,o+ tToeo ,i,a,, 80
In eI,oI oEr,.,, t,-i, -. - IiI. .,'
-I-o1II in tI, c,,+,,. of ti- ~ -
J,,ii ,,,oa+, - - ~ -, 90 tt .t.e
iabt rccai,oI from boj -a,ios -,,oT tr
ne Tho srT,arn If its Ii:to,1aa In tI,S
T1,,no, df ,c;, l'oflio .,,j,,"d y, tC
ro,,oIIy srroi,I 80. 80 - stiI
their distance from the center, it is clear
lhat the amount or ilSht received from the
whole cluster would be as many times the
amount received from the twelve stars