The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-02-17
THE EARTH IN SPACE.
Some Enormous Distances and Figures
That Stagger.

lhere is curious fascination In put
ting side by side the myth and science
of astronomy. The old legends OF the
sun and moon, of earth and sky, of
heaven and the stars, tell US of the self
same objects whose place and size,
whose weight and nature astronomers
are chronicllDg to day. The difference
is great indeed between the guesses of
early times and the methods of modern
science nowhere else, perhaps, is the
contrast seen so well between the
infancy and the maturity of the mind
of man, and no part of astronomy
shows it so clearly as that which tells
of the earth's place in the universe.
To the Greeks, eight centuries be-
fore Christ, the earth was fiat, sur.
rounded by the sea, and covered by
the canopy of sky which is the floor of
heaven, the abode of the Olympian
gods. Greece was at the center of
the earth, and Delphi at the central
point of Greece. As to other worlds
scattered through the sky depths,
science has lately been learning much ;
something of their nature, their mum
Der, their distance is constantly being
learned, while the way is being pre-
pared ior gaining some real insight
into the relations of the stars among
themselves, and for fixing our own posi-
ton in regard to other suns and
systems than our own.
We have to invent a new measure
for talking of their distance, since, find
ing miles too small, we talk of light
years, which means the distance that a
ray of light, travelling some 10000
miles a second, would traverse in a
year. Before we get too used to talk
ing of light years, it may be we'll to try
10 get notion what light year really
is. 1t means journey that would
take an express train more than
II, 900 900 years. 1t means velocity
that the periphery of a gigantic fly
wheel 100 miles in diameter could not
keep up with, though it made 500
revolutions in a second. 1t means a
distance traversed in one second that
sound will not pass over in ten days
And this is the unit for the quantities
that astronomy deals with when treat.
ing of the distribution of stars in space.
Sometimes one bears a cubic light
years spoken of that is, an imaginary
cube with each side light year long.
1t was long after men saw how to mea
sure the distance of the stars before
they succeeded so as to feel much
confidence in the results obtained but
now the distance of a few stars are
known with comparative accuracy and
certainty, many measures having been
made that probably come within 20 OF
80 per cent of the truth.
The nearest star that has been found
is Alpha Centaurl, with distance of
four and one third light years. Prob.
ably, next in order is small star mum
bered a1.1S5 in Lalande's catalogue.
1t is about six and one-half light years
off. while 81 Cygni, the most frequently
measured of anv star, is about seven to
seven and one half light years off. Blu,
let US take our nearest neighbor ano
try to see something of the isolation o
our solar sytem in space. Let US try
to conceive of sphere of which tht
sun is center, with radius of 4.3s
light years, so placing our neares
steller neighbor on its circumstance
translated into the more familiar unit
Its diameter is over 5o,ooo,ooo mile
and Its cubic contents nearly $50 cubic
light years, or 10000 sextillions (sevel
with forty ciphers) or cubic miles, 70
a cubic light year is rather more thai
200 sextillion cubic miles. Here i
isolation indeed,
The sun, with all its vastness, doe
!. not fill one two. .hundred-thousand
trillionth (two with twenty-five