Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-08-03
LARGEST SUN KNOWN.
vslT FHH ASTRONOMERS SAY ABOUT TEE
GREAT STAR AROTURUS
You.l in sizs 10 $4,000 Suns-Whai Would
Happen if Our Little Earth Should Pail
Into 1.-THE Tremendous Blazs
Of It's Heat

New YORK, August Mr.. Garrett
Serviss is one Of the few men qualified
TO supply US with news about other
worlds than this. With view to get
ting some plain information on far
away but very interesting subject,
good many questions were put to Mr..
Serviss.
"What do you think is the most in
teresting thing in astronomy" was the
startling one.
Il should say" he answered, "that it
was the recent discoveries in regard to
the tremendous size Of some Of the 9TH
er suns in space. Take the star Arc
turus. DR.. Elkin has made a measure
ment Of its distance from the earth, and
If he has made no mistake it is no less
than IL, 500, goo times as far away from
Us as the sun is.
HOW DISTANCES ARE RECKONED.
"YOu know that the light Of a star
or Of the sun varies inyerely as the
square of the distance. II the sun
were twice as far away as it now is we
should get One-Quarter as much light
from it. Careful comparisons have
shown that Arcturus actually sends to
the earth about one twenty-billionth as
much light as the sun itself, but il the
sun were removed 14O, 600 times as FAR
as il nOwis, it would shine as a star no
brighter than Arcturus.
Arcturus is 1850, 900 times as far
away as the sun. Dividing that 0y
l4O, 600 we get the number 50, which
NOV be taken as measure OF the d.
ameter OF Arcturus, as compared with
the diameter of the sun. The suns d.
ameter is 500, 900 miles, and, therefore,
the diameter of ArcturUs must be ABOUT
n 900, 600 miles, and It's circumference
224. OOO. 900 miles! In bulk 1t Is 55l,-
600 times as great as the sun!
ssArcturus, having 50 times the dame
ter of the sun. must shine, II every point
on il as bright as corresponding
noint ON the sun, 6,724 times as brill
iiantlv as the sun does, because the sur
face of spheres vary as the squares OF
their diameter. Such globe as near
TO Us as our sun is would NIL hau the
sky. but we could never exist In Such
proximity 90 so tremendous a sun as
that
A STARTLING POSSIBILITY.
,If the earth could be moved through
space toward Arcturus, or If 1t could
fan TO Arcturus, as it would probably
do but for the protecting arm that IS
extended by our own sun at close quar-
ters. the spectacle that would be pre-
sented to its inhabitants as they APP
preached that great star would be OF IN
describable magnihcence.
when we had arrived within some
thing less than 5000 900, 900 miles OF
ArcturuS It's ligRt and heat would DC
equal 20 that which we get from our
sun at a distance OF only 95,OOO'OOU
miles. When we got as close 10 IL as
the distance of Neptune from the sun
So 80 rs heat would begin to De
with the res p II you'd smite the asr .G5
tion. The forests would burn, the
oceans would rise from their beds in
vapOr, the very ground would smoke,
and before we could approach as close
as the earth is TO the sun the whole
globe would have been melted, II not
diSsipated in YapOr.
ITS GREAT ATTRACTIVE FORCE.
'Arcturus is truly king among stars,
and our sun, great and brilliant as it is,
il dropped iato the blazing philosophers
of ArcturuS, would be instantly Swal-
lowed be and the only visible evidence
OF It's fate would be a sudden flash, and
then, perhaps, a quickly vanishing blot
on the brilliant surface of the great
star, where the down-ruSh OF the doom
ed sun had swept in a breath OF cooler
vOpOr from above.
"But Ii is worth while stopping mo-
ment to consider the effects of the
gigantic attraction of such body as
ArcturuS. On the sun the force Of
gravity is twenty-Seven times as great
as on the surface of the earth, but on
Arcturus, supposing the same mean den
sity, it would be 300 times as great
so that man Weighing 200 pounds
transported 70 ArcturuS would be
crushed under his own weight of 44O, 900
pounds into a fat speck of protOplasmic
nonenity almost before the fierce fires
OF the mighty solar furnace could lick
him up and transfer him into a sun
beam"
"What sort Of people would be found
walking around Arcturns? Rather
large, aren't they?'
"If we suppose that Arcturns could
be an inhabited world, 10 Is natural TO
speculate on the tremendous size OF its
inhabitants.
"Voltaire, in his 'MicrOmegaS, " tells
story of an inhabitant of a planet be-
longing 70 Sirius, or the Dog Star, who
was so large that when he visited the
earth he was able TO wade through its
oceans without wetting his ankles, but
the astronomers have shown that the
probability as TO the size OF the lnhao-
itants of these great orbS is just the
other wav. that because they are large
tbeir grsvitatiOn must be so great that
their inhabitants, instead Of being pro-
portionately large, would be exceeding
ly small.
MEN TEN MILES TALL.
"If however. we suppose that the
size of an inhabitant OF Arcturus should
correspond with that Of the globe upon
which he dwells, he would be upward
of ten miles tall, and if he were, on the
other hand. small in proportion to the
size of the globe, and the general opln-
ion of astronomers is that he would DE
small rather than large, then he would
be only eight one-th0usandthS OF an
inch tall. 80,
.But. unless we are to agree with
Herschel. who thought that even the
sun might have living inhabitants uhueI
tho or,,s+ ~ hlazin0 clouds BY which IL