The Forrest City times., 1891-01-30
BURNT-OUT STARS,
ss There any Chases thss They will E,ss ssriAs
 Our Earth.

ss There any Chase thss They Will E,ss ssrIAs Osr Earth.
 Astronomers tell us that our son and all the stars must eventually burn out and become dead celestial bodies. Then we should like to know what is to become of the remains. It is a pretty we'll established fact that in nature nothing is lost and we may fairly assume that there is no uni versal cemetery where defunct stellar bodies are laid at rest When our sun. for example. reaches the end of it's life span 1t will of course emit no light, vet it's change from life to death will not stop its onward Journey in the realms of space at its present rate of nearly half a million miles day. Just so it must be with all the other suns, tho whole fifty million that are visible through the telescope and the countless millions beyond teescopic range.
 But in considering this matter of burnt out and dead sun we must re- member that We can look at stars, any clear night. that may have been we'll define suns before our great luminary was born. If this process of sun-mak- ing, or star-making, as you choose to call 1t, has been going so long docs it not logically follow that there are. at this very moment stellar spectres. dead and dark remains Of stars. wan. dering through the universe? Many astronomers believe this, and none of them have so far successfully argued against the theory.
 If this be true, we may be looking directly in the line Of dead and dark star, up there between two bright and living ones, when we gaze at the heavens these clear winter nights.
 But here is an interesting thought If these immense dead bodies arc thus wandering through space, is there not possibility that one of them may wander into the confines oi the solar system and play havoc with hls little brood of planets and moons? This possibility has been discussed by some astronomers; but the matter is one that neither this generation nor the next o2e. at least, need trouble itself about. For this reason the approach of such body would be detected by astronomers before it could get within hundred years Of travel from us, even fl 1t moved at the suns rate of half million miles per day.
 The presence of the planet Neptune, nearly three billion miles away, was detected by certain perturb tions that astronomers noted in the movements ot Uranus. Now it is safe to assume that body so large as burnt out sun, coming toward the solar system would by it's attraction affect our outlying planets and also the sun. when at least twenty times farther away than Nep- tune Is. At the rate Neptune travels in it's orbit, 1t would .ako him about twenty-five years to reach the sun. travelling In n straight limo if he should take sudden impulse to visit his parent
 Even allowing for spectral tramp star to>take fancy for calling on us. it would take it certainly not less than a hundred years to get here after the astronomers would have detected it's intentions. even if it should come at the suns speed of a hundred and sixty million miles in year.
 But this question as to what becomes of the dead stars is one that tho astron- omers seem very chary about discuss- ing. They can see what they believe to be the process ot star makin con stantly going on, but they cannot sec any dead and dark stars and there Is nothing but analogy. conclusion and conjecture upon which to base an opinion.
 One thing we certainly know: therc Is no stellar spectre now near enough 10 ihe solar system to get hero in the lifetime Of anybody now living on the earth.