The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1892-07-29
NUMBER %.

ell ii HOt actually lallln0 IN temper.
ature, must, al some time, begin to
lose lis temperature. Then, of
course. lis capacity for radiating
heat will begin TO aJalc. The
heat received by the earth from
The great center Of our system,
must, OF course, decline. There
seems no escape from the conclus.
ion that the continuous loss of so.
lar heat must still go on, so that
the sun will pass through the va
rious stages OF incaniescence bril-.
liancy, OF glowing redness, of dull
rcdness, until 1t ultimately be.
comes dark and non-llluminating
star. In this final state. the sun
will literally join the majority.
Every analogy would leach US that
The dalk and non-illuminous bod.
les IN the universe are far more
numerous than The brilliant suns.
We can neversee The dark objects,
we can discern their presence only
indirectly. All The stars that we
can see are merely these bodies
which al this epoch of their career
happen to be so highly heated as
to be luminous.
There Is thus a distinct limit In
mans existence on earth, dictated
by he ultimate exhaustion of the
sun. II is, of course, a question
Of much interest for us o speculate
on the probable duration of The
suns beams in sufficient abund.
ance for The continued maintain.
ahce of life. Perhaps the most
reliable determinations are those
which have been made by Prof.
Langley. They are based upon
his own experiments upon The in
tenslio OF solar radiation, conduct.
ed under circumstance that give
I them special value. | shall en-.
deavor TO give summary of the
interesting results at which he has
arrived.
The utmost amount of heat that
t would ever have been possible
for the sun 10 contain would sup
ply its radiation for 1S,000,000
years at the present rate. OF
course this does not assert that
the sun, as a radiant body, may
not be much older than the period
named. We have already seen
that The rale at which the sun
beams are poured forth has grad
ua1ly increased as the sun rose in
temperature. In the early times
the quantity Of sunbeams dispens-
ed was much less per annum than
at present, and it is therefore,
quite possible that the figures may
be so enlarged as TO meet the re-
quiremenls of and any reasonable
geological demand with regard to
past duration of life on earth.
II seems that the sun has al.
ready dissipated about four.filhs
Of the energy with which it may
have originally been endowed. At
all events, il seems that, radlating
energy at its present rate. the sun
may hold out tor 100000 years,
or for 100000 years. but not for
100000 years. Here then, we
discern in the remote future
limit to the duration OF life on this
globe. We have seen that ii does
no, seem possible for any other
source of heat to be available for
replenishing the wanting stores of
the lnminary. 1t may be that ihe
heat was originally impaired to
The sun as the result of some great
collision between Two bodies which
were both dark before the collision
took place, so that, in fact, the two
dark masses coalesced into a vast
nebula from which the whole of
our system has been evolved. Of
course, it is always conceivable
that The sun may be reinyigoraled
by repitition OF a similar ST arting
process. 1t ia, however, hardly
necessary to observe that so terlit.
ic a convulsion would be fatal to
life on the solar system. Neither
from the heavens above, nor from
The earth beneath, does il seem
possible TO discover any rescue for
The human race from The inevita.
ble end. The race is as mortal us
the individual, and, so far as we
know, its span cannot under any
circumstances be run out beyond
number OF million Of years,
which can certainly be told on the
fingers of both hands, and proba-
bly, on the fingers OF one.