Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-03-07
LIFE AMONG THE STARS.
DO PLANETS AND PEOPLE EXIST
IN OTHER SYSTEMS THAN OURS?

One of the most fascinating questions
that astronomical discoveries have ever
raised is whether planets revolve in the
light of all or any of the millions Of
stars scattered through space. 1t has
been demonstrated that many, and
probably most, of the stars are suns
greater by far than our sun as givers of
both light and heat Mr. Dockyer's
speculations as to the meteoritic origin
of the celestial bodies may lead lis to
think that many of the stars are as yet
merely clouds of meteors, and not truly
solar bodies; but this does not alter the
fact that their luminosity exceeds the
SUMS, or that, no matter what their
present condition may be, they will
ultimately reach a state of develop
ment closely resembling that of the sun.
If the stars are meteor born, so is the
sun. And if the great ma jority of the
stars are as yet only condensing sN arms
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 dotage.
1t is common to hear people speak of
the poss iblity of the stars ing inhab-
tied. This can only be granted upon
the supposition that the inhabitants
dwell on planets revolving around the
stars, for modern studies of the sun
have completely upset HerschePs idea
that the heat and light of the solar orb
come to us from an envelope of fiery
clouds surrounding a cool and habita bic
globe. 1t is not easy to resist the
simple argument from analogy in favor
of the existence of such planets, espe-
of development which produce our
solar system are in operation through
out space. Recent discoveries of spiral
nebulB, closely resembling in aspect
some of the stages of existence through
which the suns system must once have
passed if the nebular hypothesis is well
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
gravi tation to other systems, but demon
Btrate the existence of stellar assem-
blages whose members sustain to one
another relations similar to those which
bind our planets to the sun.
Still there has been hitherto no discov-
cry of anybody that could properly be
called Il 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 revOlve around their common CEN
ter of gravity. In the case of triple
stars we find something closely analog-
Gus 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, re-
wolves around the SUM- just SO in a
triple star system, we behold one star
revolving around another, and the two
together revolving around third The
resemblance goes even further, for the
smallest star of the three revolves
around the second in size, and that in
its turn around the largest
Another step, however, and the anal
ogy breaks down, for the earth and the
moon are opaque bodies, simply reflect
ing the light of the sun, while all the
members of triple star system are
solar orbs. Moreover, the earth and the
moon are practically almost infnitesi-
NAL in magnitude as compared with the
sun, while the smaller stars in the triple
system 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 calcu-
lated to awaken the hope that we shall
eventually obtain at least partial
solution of the question of the existence
of planets in the sidereal systems. The
spectroscope, which has ACHE we'd SO
many wonderful things for the astron-
omers, has again proven 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 nonluminous one. We have
but to adopt different phraseology,
suggested by analogy, 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
Algol, the periodic variations of whose
light have been known and watched for
centuries. Professor Vogers spectro-
scopic investigations indicate that there
is dark body revolving around the star
in period of less than three days, and
at distance of about 3, $50, 600 miles.
According to computations based upon
the data obtained by Vogel, the diam
eter of Algol is l, 116, 600 miles, or $780,
900 miles greater than that of our sun,
while the diameter of its strange COM
panion, OF satellite. is $40, 900 miles, be-
ing 20,0 900 miles less than the SUMS. But
the density of these huge bodies is sim
gularly slight, SO that their combined
mass is only two-thirds as great as that
of the sun. 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 1000 600 times as large as the
earth, and about So 900 times as heavy.
There is one consideration, independ.
ent of its slight density, which would
seem to dispose of the possibility that
this strange planetary consort of Algol
can harbor living beings. If we assume
that Algops radiative energy EQUALS the