The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-16
OTHER SUNS AND OTHER WORLDS.
One of the Interesting Debates by the
Scientists.
Hartford Courant.
laIE AL

Hartford Courant.
IF other. suns then probably other
of Mr.. Garrett P. Servisss very readable
essay in the December number of the Pop
har baSg M lon the peg on Mhch
by Dr. L. j. j. See, OF the Lowell Observa-
tory:
certainly disclosed stars more difficult than
any which astronomers had seen before.
Among these obscure objects about half a
dozen are truly wonderful, in that they
seem to be dark, almost black in color,
ana apparently are shining by dull re-
Elected light. It is unlikely that they will
turn out dark bodies in fact, shining only
by the reflected light of the stars around
which they revolve, we should have the
among the fixed stars
These obscure bodies, Mr.. Serviss eau
lions us, are not to be confused with the
enormous, invisible bodies caught by the
Spectroscope in the act of revolving around
certain fixed stars. Rather they seem to re-
Semple In way the strange companion of
SIRIUS, although that still gives out very
Ieeble light of its own. Whatever they may
be, they. are not planets in our sense of
I 1ne WORD; OF this Mr.. Serviss is convinced.
Inc biggest planet we know anything about
is Jupiter. AT the distance of the nearest
stars planet of the size of Jupiter would
be about lone hundred times less bright
than the fainteSt star which the largest
telescope is just able, under the most ex-
qulsite conditions, to glimpse" In other
invisible. The fact that these obscure OBJ
Jects of which Professor See speaks are
Visible proves that they are enormously
larger than Jupiter. 1t is by no means GER
tain that Jupiter is a habtable planet; it is
quite certain unless we are to abandon
terrestrial analogies altogether and go it
DInu that these enormously larger bodies
cannot be habitable
Owing to their great mass they bear
such sway over their shining companions
as none of our planets, nor all of them COM
plned, can exercise, and for the same rea-
son tney cannot, except in a dream be i'm
aglned to possess that which, in our eyes,
must always be the capital feature of a
planet, rendering it in the highest degree
interesting wherever it may be found-sen-
Does it follow that there are no real plan-
etary bodies in the universe, revolving
around other suns than ours? Mr.. Serviss is
not of that opinion, though Professor See
appears to hold it. He admits that the
double star systems and the multiple star
sytemS present conditions that make plan
etary life nceivable-impossible But he
points out that, for every such system
tnere are hundred single stars, shining as
our sun shines At the same distance the
twin of our sun would look like one of these
stars and would appear to the man at the
Telescope no less solitary Very we'll then:
a. nat reason can we have for excluding
tnese single stars constituting as they do
the vast majority of the celestial host from
q similarity to the sun in respect To the
manner OF their evolution from the original
neDulouS condition? These stars exhibit no
companions, such planetary attendants as
they may have lying, on account of their
mlnuteness, far beyond the reach of our
HoSI powerful instruments. But since thew
vastly outnumber the binary and multiple
systems, and since they resemble the sun
IN IN htaviing no large attendants, should we
pc Justlned, after all, in regarding our sys-
tenn as unique" 1t is true we do not know
by visual evidence, that the single stars
nay nave planets, but we find planets attending
the only representative of that class of stars
tnat We are able to approach closely-the
9Suli.an M we know that the existence of
result of the operation of physical laws
Wnlcn must mold good in every instance of
nebuiar condensation. The conclusion
tnen, would seem to be that we should
not be justified in assuming that the
SOAR system is unique simply because il
olIIers widely from the double and multiple
gard 1t as probable that the vast multitude
of stars which do not appear, when viewed
Win the telescope, or studied by spectre
scope methods, to have any attendants com
parable with themselves in magnitude. have
originated in manner like that of the sun.
ana ana may De the centers Of true planetary
systems resembling ours. The argument /
think, goes further than to show
the the mere ne possibility of the exist
stars did not originate in a manner
quite unlike the. origin of the sun, then
the existence of planets in their neigh
Eofhood is almost foregone conclusion,
Tor the sun could hardly have passed
through the process of formation out of
during its contraction. And so. notwith-
standing the eccentricities Of the double
stars, we may still cherish the belief that
there are eyes to see and minds to think
out in celestial space
The learned astronomers who do not mix
imagination with their science-Walt Whit
man wrote a poem about one of them once
may dismiss all this as mere idle specuIa-
ton. It's a kind of thing, anyhow. that the
unlearned man likes to read 1t gives him
new T17,. matter for thought when, like Walt
Whitman, he
'Wanders off by himself
In the mystical moist night air. and from
time to time
Looks up i'll perfect silence to the stars"