Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-12-29
BEWILDERING FIGURES
Employed in Giving the Velocity
of tho Planets.
Astros .micai Calculations Which Fairly
Ts.ho Ones Breath Away
some Interesting Scien-
titlc Facts.

Even with the figures before us duly
proved it IS impossible for us to comprc-
hend the wonderful velocity ut which
many of the planets travel. That which
moves most rapidly, according to the
latest astronomical calculations, is Arc
turus. which rushes through space ut
the rate of 107090 miles an hour or
4.72S,000 miles day.
Arcturus, according to DR.. Guilcmin,
I prominent astronomer, is 11,5dO,OUO
times as far away from the earth as the
sun. in round numbers 1,0Go,5O0,G00,-
GOO.O0O miles. an inconceivable space.
1t is fairly generally known that ii tae
sun were twice as far away as it now is.
we should get only q fourth of the light
we now obtain from it.
Careful comparisons have shown that
Arcturus sends to the earth about one
twenty-billionth as much light as the
sun. but if the sun were removed 140,-
600 times as far away as it now is It
would shine as Il star no brighter than
Arcturus Yet Arcturus is 11,500,0CD
times as far away rs the sun.
The suns diameter is SS6.0O0 miles,
and therefore the diameter of Arcturus
must be about 100000 miles, while
its bulk is SOL 900 times greater than
the sun. Therefore. if every point upon
it is as bright as the corresponding
point on the sun Arcturus must shine
6.724 times more brilliantly than the
sun. Such Il globe as near to us as the
sun is would fill half the sky, but we
never could live in such proximity to it,
If the earth could be moved through
space toward Arcturus the spectacle
that would be presented TO its inhab-
itants as they approached that great
star would be of indescribable mngnifi-
ccnce.
When we had arrived within some
thing less than S.O00,00O.0OO miles Of II
its light and heat would be equal to that
which we get from our sun alta distance
of only 02.OO0,C00 miles. When we ap,
preached it as close as Neptune the in
tenSity of its heat would begin to be
unbcarabe. At the distance of Jupiter
it would smte the earth with the re-
sistless energy of its radiation. The
forests would burn, the oceans rise
from their beds in vapor, the ground
would sink. and before I'VE could
approach rs close as the earth is to the
sun. the whole of our globe would be
melted and dissipated in steam.
Truv. Arotnus is king among
stars, and our sun. great and brilliant
as it is, if dropped into the blazing phot-
osphcre of that great planet would be
instantly swallowed up and the only
visible evidence of its fate would be a
sudden fash.
Upon the sun the force of gravity is
81 times as great as upon the surface
Of the earth, but upon Arcturus it would
be 1900 times as great, so hat a man
weighing 200 pounds on the earth, when
transported to Arcturus would be
crushed under his own weight of 4i4,-
GOO pounds in a speck. almost before
the fires of that mighty solar surface
could consume him.
If IL devilfsh had been born at the
same date as Julius Caesar, June IL,
100 Il. c., with a tentaclc 1,OG0, &c., ,OOG,-
100000 miles long and on the day of it's
birth had placed one claw upon he fer
vid surface of Arcturus, it would yet
require the lapse of several thousand
years beyond the present date before
the sensation of the burn would enter
the creatures consciousncss-upon the
supposition that sensation travels with
the same speed as light, 1885, 900 miles
per second.
OF course, the figures bewildcr one,
but as far as they can be they have
been proved correct.-N. Y. Recorder.