The morning call., 1891-08-21
A BLAZE OF LIGHT.
What Astronomers Say About
ArcturuS, Hing of All Suns.
It Is Il, 100000 Miles in Diameter and Equal
to $4,000 suns-Its Heat and Other
Comparative Features.

|
many questions were put to Mr. Serviss the
other day by New York Sun correspond
ent.
what do you think is the most interest.
ing thing in astronomy" was the starting
one.
Il should say" he answered, that it wa:
the recent discoveries in regard to the ire
mendOuS size of some Of the other suns. in
space.
Take the star Arcturus. DR.. Elkin has
made measurement of its distance from
the earth, and, il he has made no mistake,
it is no less than II, 500 600 times as far away
from us as the sun is.
You know that the light Of q star or OF
the sun varies inyersely as the square OF
the distance. II the sun were twice as fal
away as it now is we should get ene-quarter
as much light from it, Careful comparisons
have shown that Arcturus actually sends to
the earth one twenty billionth as much light
as the sun itself, but if the sun were re-
moved 10000 times as far as 1t now Is II
would shine as star 10 brighter than
ArcIuruS
yet Arcturus is II 100000 times as far
away as the sun. Dividing that by 40, 900
we get the number 81, which may be taken
MS measure of the diameter of Arcturus,
as compared with the diameter of the sun.
The suns diameter is $4,000 miles, and,
therefore, the diameter of Arcturus must
be about 100000 miles. and its circumfer-
ence 224. 600. coo miles In bulk it is ISL, 900
times as great as the sun!
Arcturus, having eighty-twO times the
diameter OF the sup. must shine, if every
point on it is as bright as a corresponding
point on the sun, 6724 times as brilliantly as
the sun does, because the surfaces of
spheres vary as the squares of their dame
ter. Such globe as near to us as our sun
is would fill half the sky. but we could never
exist in such proximity to so tremendous a
| sun as that.
''If the earth could be moved through
space toward ArcturuS, or if it could fall to
| AIcturus, as il would probably do but for
the protecting arm that is extended by our
own sun at close quarters, the spectacle that
| would be presented to its inhabitants as
they approached that great star would be Of
| indescrlbable magniticence.
WHEN WE HAD ARRIVED
| Within something less than 5000, 600 900
miles Of Arcturus its light and heat would
| be equal to that hlch we get from our sun
at distance of only 90, GOO, COO miles. When
we got as close to IL as the distance of Nep-
! tune from the sun the gush of its heat would
| begin to be unbearable; at the distance of
Jupiter from the sun it would smte the
earth with the resistlesS energy of its radia-
| ton.
The forests would burn, the oceans
would rise from their beds in yapor, 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, if
| not diSSpated in vapUr.
| "ArcturuS is truly king among stars and
| our sun, great ana brilliant as it is, if dropped
| into the blazing photosphere of ArcturuS,
| would be instantly swallowed up. and the
only visible evidence OF its fate would be
| sudden flash, and then, perhaps. a quickly
| vanishing blot on the surface of the great
! star where the down-rush of the doomed
sun had swept in breath of cooler air from
| above.
but 1t is worth while stopping moment
to consider the effects of the gigantic attrac-
ton of such body as Arcturus. On the
| sun the force OF gravity Is p times as great
| as ON the surface of the earth, but on Are
turus, supposing the same mean density il
| would be POO times as Igreat, so that a man
weighing 200 pounds transported to Arctu-
| rus would be crushed under his own weight
| OF 100000 pounds into flat speck of proto-
plasmlc nonentity almost before the fierce
fires of that mighty solar furnace could lick
| him up and transform him into a sunbeam.
| III we suppose that Arcturus could be an
| Inhabited world it is natural TO speculate on
the tremendous size of its inhabitants.
"Voitaire, in his 'Micromegas, tells a
story of an inhabitant Of a planet belonging
to Sirius, or the dog star, who was SO large
that when he visited the earth he was able
10 wade through its oceans without wetting
his ankles, but the astronomers have shown
that the probability as to the siZe OF the in
other way; that because they are large their
gravitation must be so great that their in
habitants, instead of being proportionately
large, would be exceedingly small.
If however, we suppose that the size of
an innabitant of Arcturus should correspond
with that of the globe on which he dwells
he would be upward OF ten miles tall aud
If he were, OIL the other hand, small IN pro-
portion to the size Of the globe, and the
| general opinion of astronomers is that he
would be small rather than large, then he
would be only eight one-thousandths of an
inch tall.
But, unless we are to agree with Her
schel, who thought that even the sun might
have living inhabitants under the crust of
blazing clouds by which it is surrounded.
we must assume that it would not be posi-
BILE for any living being to dwell upon the
star Arcturus.
ARCTUKUS MAY HAVE A GREAT FAMILY
OF planets proportiOned in size to the ire
mendous size of the star itself. IL that
| gigantic sun has its planets on the same
| propoItlOnate scale as our solar system,
| then a planet belonging TO Arcturus and
corresponding In comparative size and place
to the earth would be 6?6,G00 miles in diam
| eter and 100000 miles around, or half as
| large az the sun itself, but its distance from
| Arcturus would be enormous as compared
with the distance of the earth from the sun.
Although all the scientific probabilities
are in favor of their being small in propor
ton as their worlds are large, yet it is i'm
possible for Us to say what nature may not
| have provided in such cases for the exist
ence of PEE pie proportoned for the size of
the globes on which they dwell. Little mi
croScOpic creatures few hundredths of an
inch in height would scarcely be suited to
the conquest and development of mighty
worlds as large as or larger than OR sun
ITSELF that's fact.
LET us suppose. then, as being more ac-
| cOrdant with our own ideas of the fitness of
things. that the inhabitants OF these big
| planets bear some proportion to the globes
which are their homes.
ut does not follow that they should walk
| upon two legs and move about perpendicu-
larly as the inhabitants of the world do.
Nature could readily provide for the intro
duction of intelligence, the comprehension
of wit and humor, among creatures having
no legs at all and crawling on the face
of their planets, as DR.. Whewel imagined
that the inhabitants of the planet Jupiter
might do.
"a variation in the atmosphere of these
planets might lead to wonderful variety
them. 1t wont do for us to assume that our
atmosphere OF oxygen and hydrogen is the
only one capable of supporting life.
There might be a thousand forms of
vegetation more wonderful. more beautiful
than anything existing on the earth The
peculiar color OF the light of Arcturus and
of some of the other stars is in itself an in
dicatiOn that there must be great variety
in the forms and conditions of life existing
within their rays
THAT has always been point of dis
agreement between those who have specu-
| lated on one side or the other upon the ques-
tion of life In other worlds. Some insist
that there can be no intelligent life except
| in bodies like those of man, but the broader
| view, and the one that seems to ME far more
probable and reasonable, is that there can
no more be limit to the forms and consti-
tuition Of the bodies in which life may be
contained than there is limit to the num-
Der and variety of the heavenly orbs them
selves.
At the same time it Is difficult to con-
ceive any expression of intelligence that
would vary very much from the intellectual
| life OF man.
| WE CAN HARDLY IMAGINE
That the inhabitants of the planets of Arc
| turns might nnSSeSS q breadth of intallank