The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-12-18
STRANGE STARS.

4
Are all the stars suns? The answer
to that question depends upon what we
mean by sun. Recent discoveries in
astronomy have made it evident that
some of the stars are very different
( from our sun. Many of them are
/ larger, and many, probably, are smaller
than our orb of day; but that is by no
means the only difference. They vary
wonderfully in their organization and
condition. Some are intensely hot;
others are comparatively cool. The
| light of some is blindingly brilliant;
others, of perhaps equal magnitude.
are obscure. Occasionally the telescope,
or the spectroScOpe, shows that an OBJ
| ject resembling a star to ordinary vision
! Is in reality a cloud of gas, or posi- bly,
swarm of meteors.
| But there is one kind of stars. all the
representatives of which have been dis
covered within the last twenty-seven
/ years, that is in some respects the most
peculiar of all. These are the bright
( line stars" also called the ''Wolf-Rayet
stars" from the names of Messr.. Wolf
and Rayet, who discovered the first ex-
amples of them. Only ffty-five of
these strange stars have vet been found
amid the multitudes of the sky.
In order to understand their pecul-
iarity it may be well briefly to recall
what the spectrum of star. or of the
sun. is. When beam of sunlight, or
| of starlight, is passed through prism,
or reflected from glass ruled with fine
lines, acalled grating. the light is
spread out into a colorsd band, or spec
trum, and ordinarily this spectrum is
seen to be crossed With narrow black
lines-the Fraunhofer lines.
Each of these lines owes its existence
10 some particular substance existing.
in the form of gas or vapor, in the at
mosphere of the sun, or of the star,
from which the light under examina-
ton comes. The fact that the lines
are black indicate that the substances
TO which they are due are less intense
" heated than the interior mass of
the sun, or star, which they surround.
as the light from within streams
through them, these vapOrous sub
stances absorb the radiations that are
peculiar TO themselves, and thus pro-
duce the appearance of black lines, or
gaps, in the spectrum II i the bust
ness of spectrum ANALYSIS 10 dis
tinguish the various substances, or
elements, such as iron, hydrogen. etc,
that produce the effects just desrcibed.
Now in the case of the bright line
stars, as the name itself indicates, the
spectrum shows many bright lines in
s.ead of black ones. The meaning Of
this fact is that the atmospheres Of
such stars are hotter than their sur
faces They might be called stars on
fire, IL we could conceive of such a
thing. Moreover. they exhibit changes
and fluctuations indicating that they
can not be such steady-going bodies as
our sun is pouring out with no per
ceptible variation a certain quantity
and intensity OF light and heat month
after month and year after year, but
that they would be very uncomfort-
able. not % say destructive, neighbors
for an inhabited planet.
Just what is 20 be thought Of these
stars astronomers are not yet prepared
20 say. Prof Campbell. who has
carefully studied them. remarks
that the spectra o. the Wolf
Rsyet stars are not closely related
% any other known typ We can
probably say that the bright lines are
chromOspheric. owing their origin 20
very extensive and highly-beated at
nospheres, but showing very little re-
lat.on- IN constitution and physical
condition. 20 that ot our OWE sun
some % the substances that give the
bright lines IN these stars have 10; get
been recognized Hydrogen they pos
sess y abundance and apparently i-or
also, but much q the story that their
spectrum tells : stLI mysterious
Are they dying suns just Pickering %
extinction Or newborn orbs2 Or do
they belong % a different rank IN crsz-
tion from that IN which stands the
frea; luIiEz-F that makes .ezy!iyas
for us2
FoyD N0THEa---If yog cnild-ga dou't -
hare ourselves better. yCl si-AE. have Z