The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-01
a CELESTIAL MYSTERY.
A Wonderful star That No Man Has
Yet Sem.

From the Netc York Sun.
The many wonderful discoveries In as
tronomy recently made by the aid OF pho
tograpby have seemed to leave the older
methods OF astronomical Investigation far
In the rear But just now S. C. Chandler
of Boston has made what may be called
I discovery by the aid Of mathematical
/ methods, recalling the achievement OF
Leverrler and Adams in the dissection of
| Neptune fifty years ago. There is 10 the
/ northern sky star known as Algol which
the sharp sighted Arabs who discovered its
variations in lighs, called the demon star.
| Every two days. twenty hours and forty
nine minutes this star suddenly begins TO
/ fade, and continues to grow fainter for
/ three or four hours, ae the end of which it
has sunk from the second 20 nearly the
| fourth magnitude. After remaining thus
for few hours it begins TO brighton, and
In the course of three or four hours more
regains its accustomed brilliancy. Within
the past few years 1t has been discovered
that there is a huge black body revolving
! around Algol at q distance of some 8, 000, 600
miles. and to this phenomenon the varie-
tions IN Algols light are due. At regular
intervals this dark companion star comes
| into the line Of sight between Algol and the
earth, and thus partially eclipses Algol,
cuttingioh perhaps fve-sixths of its light.
| These stars, Algol and its strange nom
luminous comrade. are of great size, Algol
itself being more than l. 100, 900 miles in di-
ameter, while the diameter of the dark
| body that circles around it is $4,000 miles.
| MIR. Chandler, meditating on certain
| irregularities in the motions of Algol and
its companion, suspected that they might be
/ due to the presence of another invisible star
IN their immediate neighborhood He care
fully compared the observations back to the
time of Goodricke. more than 100 years
/ khav,,u ~
similar 10 that which resulted in
the discovery of Neptune through
| the effect OF its attraction on Uranus, he
| arrived at the conclusion that such another
star must actually exist. According to his
| conclusion this mysterious body is far mere
massive than either Algol or its companion,
| but 0oes not give forth any perceptible
light, and it forms a center of attraction
| around which both Of the other stars re-
| volve in a nearly circular orbit, in period
of l30 years. MIR. Chandeliers theory seems
to fit well with the observed Irregularities
of Algol. He remarks, moreover, that
there are several other stars known to as
tronomers to be variable, which evidently
have one or more dark companions like
those of Algol.
1t is natural to inquire what 10 the nature
OF these mysterious dark bodies existing in
the neighborhood Of bright stars compare
able in oriiliancy with our own sun, and
| oFluSubl1 OD69tUE bQS same law OIL RrAVlLd~
| zion that prevails in our solar system. The
primary distinction between sun and a
planet is that the former glows with a bril-
liant light of its own, while the planet hav-
ing been encrusted with'a solid and Opaque
she'll. only shines by the reelected light
which it receives from its sun. The dark
companions OF Algol may then be regarded
as in the planetary condition, at least SO far
as the question Of luminosity is concerned.
But they differ widely from any of the
| planets OF our system in their great size as
| compared with the sun, in whose neighbour
| hood they circle. That companion of Algol,
| which by its eclipsing effect produces the
variation in the light Of the star, is not very
| Tar inferior In size to its bright comrade,
while the greater dark body, whose exist
| ence seems to be demonstrated by Mr..
Chambers Investigations, greatly exceeds
| them both in mass. Here, then, if we
choose to adopt the idea that this great in
visible orb around which Algol revolves is
| a planet in our sense of the word we have
| world which is the center of motion for
the sun that eliminates it. This is going
back to the old pre-Copernican idea of the
| earth as the center of the solar system, hav-
ing the sun as it's satellite Such a system
seems unnatural, il not impossible, because
the ordinary laws Of the radiation OF heat
require thai large body, other things be.
ing equal, should cool down from the solar
to the planetary condition later than
smaller body. But it would seem that in
the Algol system, for some reason yet to be
discovered, the most massive member of
the system, has parted with its light and
heat far earlier than one Of the satellites
| revolving around 1t.
If it should prove to be true, as Mr.
Chandler suggests. that there are other, and
perhaps many other systems similar to that
of Agol, then We shall simply have addi-
tional evidence of the great variety that
exists in the arrangements of the stellar
| universe. There is really no reason why we
should take our own solar system as an in
variable type to which all the other sys-
toms throughout space must correspond. 1t
might be suggested that in the case of such
a system "a that of Algol, all the bodies
belonging to it have long since be-
come extinct through the operation of those
laws OF cos nical evolution which seems to
be manifested in the universe at large as
well as in our own planetary system. and
that through some such cause as a collision
one of the minor bodies of the system has
again been brought to a luminous condi-
ton.
But there is no end of speculation when
we try to interpret the wonderful discover
les with which The astronomy of our time is
continually surprising the world.