Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-12-07
Strange Conditions the Surfaces Of Our Neehbos Space
Which Would Make Life Entirely Different From Our Own.

Behold. there came wise men from
the east to Jerusalem, saying, where
is he that is born king of the Jews?
For we have seen his star in the east
and are come to worship him." So
much says the Gospel of Matthew
about the star of Bethlehem. Legend
on the one hand has busted itself with
the simple story, weaving around it
wonderful details, and skepticism on
the other hand has denied it altogether
or sought rational explanation of
it.
The astronomer, appealed to, can on
ly say he does not know. Asked if
the brilliant temporary star that
blazed in the MONDAY sky in 1872, and
/ that is credited, wrongly it seems, with
having converted Tyche Brahe from
law to astronomy may not be the same
star that was seen in 942, and the
same that heralded the birth of Christ,
he thinks it is not probable; it did not
appear again in 1886, as it should have
done if it were the same, and he finds
no evidence of identity. Continually
pestered with letters about it, the
Greenwich observatory issues its cir
cular, and declines to be interviewed
more.
The belief in the kindly interest of
the heavenly bodies in our affairs
yields unwillingly, however, to the cold
negation of science. If not the stars,
surely the planets must gather together
to witness our Christmastide. Surely
they must, many think, stand round
the sun in the same orderly array at
Christmas as when the good tidings
were proclaimed. How would they
look seen from a distant star? What
sees 'Arcturus, as he drives his hounds
round the pole in their leash of fire?'
Alas: 1t can only be answered, he prob
ably sees nothing. If we could take the
awful journey from here to the nearest
star, long before we could reach it our
glorious sun would have faded almost
out of sight. All his planets quite
blotted out, he would himself with
difficulty be found at all.
Let us take the wings of Milton's
sublime archangel and fly away toward
the bright group of stars, Orion, that
shines now in our eastern evening sky.
Let us fly with the speed of light In
four hours we shall reach the last out
post of the suns planetary kingdom,
but not for more than three years yet
shall we reach the nearest star. At
this outpost let us pause and look back.
Our dazzling sun is no bigger than the
red planet Mars which We see in the
northeast tonight And the planets?
They have all shrunk to little pale
dots. Only few of them can be
found al ALL
If We had halted half way out, where
the little new planet that we call D.
@. rolls in his strange orbit round the
sun. nov coming in almost as near as
the earth and again retreating beyond
Mars, We should not have seen much
more. The sun would have been
brighter, but the planets, except the
nearest ones, would have been no big
ger. Only if we could get the sun to
reduce his giant bulk and dim his over
powering rays could we see the mem
bers of the family that surround him.
On these conditions such picture as
the one shown here would be seen.
Thus our system would appear grouped
at this Christmas season, except that
proportion has been sacrificed in our
picture. The sun : thousand times
too small for his planets the planets
are ten thousand times too large for
the distance between them.