The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-12-01
THE TWlNkLlNG STARS.
How Far Are They Away and Then What
Lies Beyond?

How Far Are They Away and Then What
| Lies Beyond?
| OF the 100, 200, 900 or more stars which
are visible with astronomical instruments,
the distances from the earth of only q
very few have been measured with even
an approximation to accuracy. Most OF
the stars appear to be so far away that
the change in their apparent place caused
by viewing them from opposite sides OF
the earth's orbit-and that orbit is about
1876, 600, 900 miles across-is so slight that
it escapes certain detection. Only about
so stars have thus far yielded definite re-
suits in the attempt to measure their dis
tances, and even those results are too Of
ten exceedingly conflicting and uncertain.
The nearest star thus far discovered is one
of the first magnitude, not visible from
the United States or Europe. 1t is the
star called Alpha in the constellation of
the Centaur in the southern hemisphere
of the heavens.
The distance of this star appears to be
something like O,000, 600, 900, 600 miles,
or about 215, 900 times as great as the dis
lance of the sun from the earth.
The next nearest star, as far as known,
is a little sixth magnitude twinkler, barely
visible to the naked eye, in the constella-
ton of Cygnus, popularity called the north
ern cross. The distance of this star, which
is known to astronomers as 81 Cygni, is
variously estimated at from 40 900, 000,-
600, 900 to 60, 600, 600, 600, 900 miles, or two
or three times that of the bright star in
tho Centaur.
The brightness of the stars, as we see
them, is, then, no measure of their COM
parative distance. A very bright star
ha q
faint one, the difference in brilliance being
due to the greater magnitude of the more
distant star. Sirius, or the dog star, for
instance, which scintillates so splendidly
in the winter sky, is more distant than
the little star 81 Cygni, the latter being in
fact a very much smaller sun than ours,
while Sirius is far larger one.
1t thus appears that, while the efforts to
measure the distance of the stars have not
been very successful, yet they have re-
suited in giving us wonderful insight in
to the arrangement of the universe of suns
in the midst of which we dwell. They
have proved that large stars and small
stars are scattered through space at vari-
GUS distances from one another and from
us; that the dimensions of the blazing
bodies which we call stars, or suns, vary
sun, great, glorious and overpowering as
it seems to us, really belongs to quite
inferior rank.
But it is possible that before many years
our knowledge of the distances of the
stars may be greatly extended. Spectre
scopic investigation in the case of binary
stars, as those are called which circle in
pairs around their common center of gray
ity, is beginning to help us "a little in this
direction.
Recently, for instance, Mr.. G. w. COLES,
Jr, has calculated, from tho results of
such investigation, the mean distance of
90 stars situated in the northern hemis-
phere of the heavens, and he finds it equal
to the distance which light would travel
in about $50 years. That distance is not
less than $40, OOO, 900, 900, 900 miles, or
more than 43 times as great as the dis
lance of the nearest known star, Alpha
Centauri.
Yet, enormous as such distance is, it is
nearly certain that the average distance OF
all the stars composing the visible uni
verse is still greater. And here and there
the starry heavens, even in their richest
regions, present black and apparently emp
ty spaces through which we seem to look
out from the bounds of the visible uni
verse into fathomless depths beyond.
But is there any thoughtful mind which
can avoid asking itself the question,
"What lies beyond? When we come to
the outermost star of the universe, what
then?" That is a question which even as
tronomy, with all it's marvellous wealth OF
discovery and achievement, cannot an
swer-at least not yet.-Youth 8 Compan-
ion.