Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-01-15
Our Vast Universe May be Only in Its
Infancy and Not in Its Dotage.
Discoveries Made by the SpectroScope
Shed New Light on the Siderial
Heavens.
Some Orbs 100000 Times Larger
Than the Earth and $4,000
Times Heavier.

scattered through space. 1t has been
demonstrated that many, and proba bly,
most of the stars are suns greater by far
than our sun as givers of both light and
heat. Mr.. Lockyer's specuations as to
the meteoritic origin of the celestial bodies
may lead Us to think that many of the
stars are, as yet, merely clouds of nleteors
and not tiny solar bodies; bat this does
not alter the fact that their luminosity
exceeds the suns or that, no matter what
their present condition may be. they will
ultimately reach stage of development
closely resembling that of the sun. If the
stars are meteor born, so Is the sun. And
if the greater maj ority of the stars are as
yet only condensing swarms of meteors,
then we are led to the most interesting
conclusion that the universe, taken as a
whole, is in its infancy rather than its
adolescence, much less its dot2ge.
1t is common to hear people speak of the
possibility of the stars being inhabited.
This can only be granted upon the SUPPOSE
ton that the inhabitants dwell on planets
revolving upon the stars, for modern
studies of The sun nave completely upset
| Herschel's idea that the heat and light of
| the solar Orbs come to US from an envelope
of very clouds surrounding cold and hab-
| liable globe. 1t is not easy to resist the
single argument, from analogy IN favor OF
| the existence of such planets, especially if
we admit that the same laws Of develop
ment which produce our solar system are
in operation throughout space. Recent
discoveries of spiral nebul8, closely resem-
bling in aspect some of the stages of exist
ence through which the sun system must
once have passed if the nebular ypoth-
esis is we'll founded, greatly strengthen
this view OF the case. The phenomena Of
double and multiple stars not only furnish
evidence of the extension OF the law of
gravitation to other systems, but demon
strate the existence of stellar aSsemblages
whose members sustain to one another re-
lations similar to those which bind our
planets to the sun.
Still there has been hitherto no dis
covery of any body that could properly be
called d planet revolving around any of
the stars. The well-known double stars
are simply pairs of suns, each shedding its
light and heat upon the other, while both
reyolve around their common center Of
gravity In the case of triple stars we
| find something closly analogous to the
phenomena presented by the sun, the earth
and the moon. The moon revOlves around
the earth, and the earth, carrying the
moon with it, revolves around the sun.
| Just so in a triple-star system we behold
one star revolving around another, and the
| two together revolving around d third.
| The resemblance goes even further, for
| th2 smallest star of the three revolves
around the second in size, and that in its
turn around the largest. Another step,
however, and the analogy breaks down, for
the earth and the moon are Opaque bodies
simply rejecting the light of the sun,
While all the members of a triple star sys-
tenn are solar orbs Moreover, the earth
and the moon are practically almost in
fnitesimal in magnitude as compared with
the sun, while the smaller stars IN the
triple systems are comparatively large
bodies. In the matter of distance, too,
there is a wide difference, the components
of multiple stellar systems being generally
separated from one another by far greater
distances than that Of the earth from the
sun.
But some recent discoveries are calculat-
ed to awaken the hope that we shall
eventually obtain at least d partial solution
OF the question of the existence Of planets
in the sidereal systems, says the New
VI gull IIC SpCSllOSSOPCf "hASi iiHo
achieved so many wonderful things for the
astronomers, has again proved their friend
in this case, and, aided by photography,
has detected the existence of double stars
so close that no telescope could possibly
separate them to the eye. More than that,
some of the stellar doubles thus discovered
consist of luminous star and non-lumi-
nous one We have but to adopt a differ
ont Nh-1c nptnnu CI1CrfroStpd nv an9l00y
and these strange couples are presented
to our minds as sun and planet.
Perhaps the most remarkable Of these
interesting doubles is the celebrated star
Algoi, the periodic variations of whose
light have been known and watched for
centuries Professor Vogel's spectre
scopic Investigations indicate that there
is dark body revolving around the star
in a period of less than three days, and at
a distance of about 3, $4,000 miles. Ac-
cording to computations based upon the
data obtained by VogeI the diameter of
Algol is 1,116, 900 miles. or 256,000 miles
greater than that of our sun, while he
diameter of its strange companion, or
satellite, is $4,000 miles, being 10000
miles less than the suns. But the density
of these huge bodies is singularly slight,
so that their combined mass is only two
thirds as great as that of the SUM- From
this it is easy to see that the dark member
of the system, the planet if we may so call
it, is more than million times as large as
the earth, and about $4,000 times as
heavy There is one consideration, indie
pendent of its slight density, which would
seem to dispose of the possibility that
this STRANGE planetary consort of Algol
harbor liz hoipnc
Another star that has a close companion,
which, although itself invisible, reveals its
presence by the effects of its attraction up
on its brilliant neighbor, is Spica, the
leader of the constellation Vigor, and one
of the most beautiful stars in the heavens.
Here there is no such eclipsing of the
light of Spica by the dark attendant as oc-
ours with Algol, and the data thus obtain !
ed is far less complete than those OF the
last-named star. 1t would seem, however, |
that in this instance also the planet, II
planet it be. is of enormous dem1nsIons |
and ravolves very close to its primary, the
distance being estimated at from 5000, 90 |
to 100000 miles. RigeI, the splendid |
twinkler in the left foot of orion, has also
given indications that it has close ana
invisible satellite of as yet unknown di-
mansions. 1t has long been known that
Procyon, another first magnitude star, has
an invisible companion; and with the new
methods of research something may be learn
ed of its size and distance. We do not
here refer to the recent discoveries concern
ing Mizar in Ursa Major, and Beta Auri
g@, because those stars, situated at dist
ances of 40, 100000 miles and 8,000,0 600
are luminous bodies, and con-
cannot resemble planets in their