The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-05

millions Of years to come, unless some catas
trophe intervenes. of which there is mo sign OF
likelihood" Looking back. we may at least oe
ia ankrul that certain past ages or the eartn are
gone forever including the era when fiery
atm osphere laden with destructive VaporSs
burst forth In tremendous storms, while maleh-
cent clouds discharged torrents OF hot water,
mixed vita sulphuric acid aud other corrosive
compounds it is we'll that the gigantic
insects Of IA later period no longer exist
and that the glacial visltatlons are Tor
the present suspended. But in tho ao-
sence of any catastrophe, the eartb's
decay is an assured fact. The water supply
including the volume OF the seas, IL destined To-
diminish, though any serious denclency VIII noe
accrue until the time or earth's extreme OLD
age" The action OF the tidal wave Is appar-
emily reducing he rate of the earth's rotation.
making a longer day The action must be very
minute yet II it is real the effect will be palpa-
bic enough af er the lapse OF millions OF years.
In addition to this, there Ia warning given tnas
artificial processes are exhausttng the earth 9
stores and IL man continues to use up the ma
terials at his command at the same rapidly In
crrasing rate as in recent times, IL is possible
that in a few thousand years, instead OF MIL
lions. the earth will be no longer haoltable oy
civilized varieties of the human family.
The orbit Of Neptune, thirty times further
from the sun than that of the earth, forms tins
outer boundary Of the solar sys EN-. Inc dis
lance is immense. yet shrinks into insignifcance
compared with that which lies beyond. So vast
is the gulf which intervenes between our earth
and the stellar universe that, although many Q.
brighter than our sum- and some very consider
ably 30, yet the most powerful telescope 10 not
able 20 give them any appreciaole diameter, q
mere point of light being all that is visible.
even when the great Lick telescope Is
directed to the brightest among them.
This Of itself does not prevent the oetermi-
nation of distance, but in only few cases has
there been an approach to an actual estimate
The least extent runs into billions OK miles:
Some notion o. the reality may DO derived
from the fact that If our sun we're removed to
nh fi.ne distance from
the earth il would appear 20 us simply as q star
OF the first magnitude. The distance IN such a
a case would exceed 1900 ,O0O,OOO OF miles. Is
follows that il the nearest liked star ~ rurtner
off than this as appears to be the fact, every
star of the first magnitude must be larger or
brighter than our sun.
According to one reckoning, our sun seen
from the distance of Sirius would appear as q
star Of the fourth magnitude. Sir Robert Ball.
ascribing to Sirius a distance OF 100000 10000
OF miles, states that the sun would be altogether
Invisible from such a range, its apparent size IL
it could be called apparent-being reduced to
that Of a half penny seen 1000 miles away. A
strange hypothesis presents itself IN the argu-
ment for the existence OF dark stars. Mr. Ran
yard calculates that a dark body, equal to the
sun in size, aud only 200 times more remote,
would probably be overlooked by our astrouo-
mers. Thus we may have an Invisible uni
verse. In addition to taat which meets the
eye. The star Algol Is known to have darx
companion. and there may be- other dark orbs
in space. The extent to which movement has
been detected among the so called fixed stars IL
a notable achievement in astronomy. In one
instance star is estimated to travel at the rate
OF sixty seven miles per second or even lOo
miles. our own sun is a star travelling through
space, with all the attendant planets, at the rate
of eighteen miles Der second. There Is, accord
ingly chance that in 100000 years we saali
come abreast of the Milky Way, and in q similar
space of time pass through it, so as to view
things from the other side. Something more
win then be known about the neoulae than we
can now determine, though IL is hard 70 say
what may happen in the interval.