Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-20
ASTRONOMY STILL IN ITS YOUTH.
Dr.. Higgins Hints at the Wonders Those
Yet Living May learn.
SPECTRUM OF THE AURORA BOREAL1S

|
an enthusiast 80 years ago would scarcely
have dared to dream
DR.. Higgins sees = grand future before
the sublime science to which he has de-
voted his life:
Astronomy, he exclaimed, the Oldest OF
| the sciences, has more than renewed her
| youth At no time in the past has she been
| SO bright with unbounded aspirations and
hopes. Never were her temples so numer.
Gus, nor the crowd of her votaries so great.
| The British Astronomical Association,
formed within the year, numbers already
about 600 members. Happy is the lot OF
those who are still on the eastern side OF
| life's meridiapi Already, alasl the original
| founders of the newer methods are falling
ont-Kirchoff, Angstrom, DArrest, secohi,
Draper, Becquere1; but their places are
more than filed; the pace of the race is
| gaining, but the goal is not and never will
| be in sight. Since the time OF Newton our
knowledge of the phenomena of nature has
wonderfully increased, but man asks, per-
| haps more earnestly now than in his days,
what is the ultimate reality behind the
the pebbles of the beach with which We
have been playing? Does not the ocean of
ultimate reality and truth lie beyond2
IT'S WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENTS.
Speaking of what has been accomplished
with the aid Of the spectroscope, he said:
By means of its light alone to analyze the
chemical nature of a far-dfstant body; to be
able to reason about its present state in re-
lation to the past and future; to measure
within an English mile or less per second the
otherwise invisible motion which IL may
have toward or from us; to do more-to make
even that which is darkness to our eyes
light, and from vibrations which our organs
OF sight are powerless to perceive to evolve
a revelation N which we see mirrored some
of the stages through which the stars may
pass in their slow eyolutional progress
however poor the form of words in which
they may be described, is worthy to be re-
garded as tho scientific epic of the present
century.
Having referred at some length to the
Improvements which have been made in the
construction of the spectroscope, and to the
spectra OF the light Of the sun, Of the
electric light, and Of fame, DR.. Huggins re-
ferred to the Aurora Borealis, the true
nature of which had not yet been dis
ooveredi
The spectroscope has failed IS yet to in
terpret for US the remarkable spectrum Of
the Aurora Boreais Undoubtedly in this
phenomenon portions of our atmosphere are
lighted up by electric discharges; we should
expect, therefore, to recognize the spectra
of gases known to be present in It. As
yet we have not been able to obtain similar
spectra from these gases artiflcially, and es-
principal line in the green, which often ap-
pears alone, and may have, therefore, an
origin Independent of that of the other lines.
Recently the suggestion has been made that
the Aurora Is phenomenon produced
BY THE DUST OF MRTEoRs
and falling stars, and that near positions of
certain auroral lines to lines or futings Of
manganese, lead, barium, thallium, iron,
ETC., are sufficient to justify us in regarding
meteoric dust in the atmosphere as the
origin of the auroral spectrum. Liveing and
Dewar have made conclusive research on
of excessive minuteness thrown Off from the
surface Of electrodes of various metals and
meteor1es by disruptive discharge, and
carried forward into the tube of observation
by more or less rapid current of air or
other gas. These experiments prove that
metallic dust. however fine, suspended in
gas will not act like gaseous matter in be-
coming luminous with its characteristic
spectrum in an electric discharge similar to
that of Aurora.
The president then proceeded to state
some of the considerations from the charac-
ter of their spectra which appeared to him
to be in favor of the eyofutional order in
which he arranged the stars from their pho
tographio spectra in 1879.
This order was essentially the same as
which the white stars, which were most
numerous, represented the early adult and
and most persistent stage Of stellar life, the
solar condition that OF full maturity and
commencing age, while in the orange and
red stars with banded spectra he saw the
setting in and advance of old age. Photo
metric observations, combined with its as
certatned parallaX, showed that the star
Sirius emitted from 10 to 90 times the light
of our sun; while we learned from the mo-
tion of its companion that its mass was not
that unless this star was of an i'm.
probly great emissive power it must be Of
immense size, and in q much more diffuse
and therefore an earlier condition than our
sun, though probably at a later stage than
those white stars in which the hydrogen
light was bright.
THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.
All the heavenly bodies were seen by US
through the tinted medium Of our atmos-
phere. According to Langley. the solar
stage Of stars was not really yellow, but,
even as gauged by our imperfect eyes,
would appear blush white if we could free
ourselves from tho deceptive influences Of
our surroundings. We had before US in the
sun and planets obviously not o haphazard
of bodies, but system resting
upon multitude Of relations pointing to a
common physical cause. From these con- |
siderations Kant and Laplace formulated |
the nebular hypothesis, resting it ON gravi. |
tatlon alone for at that time the science of |
unknown. These philosophers showed how, |
on the superstition that the space now occu. |
pied by the solar system was once filled by |
yaporous mass, the formation of the sun |
and planets could be reasonably accounted |
for.
By totally different method Of reasoning,
modern science traced the solar system
backward, step by step, to similar state Of
things at the beginning. According to Helm
1oltz, the SUMS heat was mainta tanned by the
OF his mass at the rate of about
20 feet year. Whether at the present time
'he sun was getting hotter or colder we did
lot certainly know. We could reason back
10 the time when the sun was sufficiently ex-
landed to fill the space occupied by the solar
ystem, and was reduced to q great glowing |
lebula. Though mans life, the life of the
ace perhaps, was too short to give US direct
'V1dence of any distinct stages of SO august
process, still the probability was great that
ne nebular hypothesis represented broadly,
Notwithstanding some difficulties, the suces-
ION OF events through which the sun and
'lanets had passed.
Dr. Higgins next discussed the applica-
lon OF photography to the methods of as
research:
STREAMS OF TwINKL1NG STARS
The remarkable successes of astronomical
photography, which depended upon the
late's power of accumulat tion of a very fee
le light acting continuously through an ex-
osure OF several hours, were, he said,
'orthy to be regarded as new revelation |
ONE recent photographs by Mr.. Russell
moved that the great rift in the Milky Way
as in reality covered with them. The
eavens were richly but very irregula rly In.
rought with stars. The brighter stars clus-
,red into well-known groups upon a back
rS rSunu oa ,ormeo OF an enlacement OF streams
no convoluted windings and intertwined |
olrals OF fainter stars, which became richer
nd more intricate in the irregularly rifted
one OF the Milky Way. We who formed