Mexico weekly ledger., 1899-06-15
SURPRISING STATEMENT FROM
TWO OF EARTEs FAMOUS
SCIENTISTS.
WHAT PROF. 7. ]. ], SEE SAYS.
How the Sky Would Look il We Could
Z Rise Above Rarth's Atmosphere
The stars Cor suns Are
Of Many and vari-
Gus Cclors.

ley, Secretary Of the Washington
Smithsonian Institution, that "If W.
could rise above the earth'a atmos.
phere TO view IL, the sun must have .
decidedly blush tint 10 the naked eye;
the proper color of the sun La blue
not merely bluish, but positively and
distinctly blue" having been brought
into question, the very eminent as
tronomer, Prof. T. J. ]. See, OF Mont
gomery County, Mo-, now in Wash
ington City, was interviewed ON the
subject by q special writer of the
Globe Democrat
"There can be no doubt Of the cor
rectness OF Prof. Langley's opinion
that The sun ia really blue, and not
yellow as we see IL, said Prof. See, Of
the Naval Observatory at Washington,
who has made himself famous recent
ly as the discoverer OF "double stars''
in numbers hitherto undreamed Of !.
"You have only to imagine the atmos-
pheric envelope of the earth, which
hinders vision, removed, and the
heavens are revealed to the eye in an
altogether new and unfamiliar aspect.
The sky, in broad daylight, is black,
and the moon, II above the horizon, lie
no longer yellow, but brilliant white.
Though the blue sun shines above, the
stare are much brighter and more dis
tinctly seen than ever before on the
clearest night. Furthermore, they
differ very much In color, some Of
them being red, others blue, others
ose-color, others pink, others violet,
and yet others green.
"a strange aspect OF tho universe
this would seem to Be, and yet such is
lie true appearance, whereas we are
accustomed to behold 1t altered to the
eye by the interference of the atmos-
phere. As is well known, the sky
looks blue because OF the breaking up
of light by innumerable particles OF
dust and moisture afloat in the air.
Take away this hindrance to vision,
and no longer will diffusion OF sunlight
obscure the view OF the stare, each Of
which viii shine like q separate lamp
in the blackness OF space. The blue
sun, under present circumstances,
looks yellow because the blue light
rays, having very short wave-lengths,
do not easily penetrate the atmos-
pheric coat of earth. The yellow
waves are much longer, and have q
better chance to get through; hence
the sun is yellow and sunlight is yell
low.
"Now, as to the differing tints OF
the stars, we must understand that
they vary In this respect with their
age. To begin with, 1t is necessary
to realize that, barring the moon and
a few planets of our own system, Wis
ible because they are near, all of the
celestial bodies one sees in the heav-
ems at night are suns-many of them
hundreds of times as big as our own
sun. The so-called Milky Way Is q
congress OF suns, in which our orb Of
day is a rather Inferior luminary. On
this point / shallhave something more
to say presently, but meanwhile 1t
will suffice to remark that planets In
general, being dark and extinguished
bodies, could not possibly be visible
by their own light, and SO We must
perceive that every star which twink
les In the vault above us at night is q
sun. By the aid Of very powerful
telescope, l have discovered about a
dozen stars that are actually made
visible by the reflected light OF the
suns about which they revolve; but
they do not Importantly concern the
general proposition.
"The color of the star-otherwise to
be determined distant SUMMARIES
according to its age. In its youth II is
yellow; in its old age, blue. The
tint is q matter Of temperature; the
hotter q star, the bluer II gets, be-
cause great heat means an activity
that engenders blue light waves.Sirius
is q very blue star, as seen through
the telescope, simply because IL is so
hot. Probably, Sirius gives out LOG
times as much light as our sun though
II Is only three. or perhaps four times
as big. Vega, 10 the constellation
Lyra, hundreds Of times as big as our
sun, is blue, and the Inference Is that
the heat it emits is tremendous.
81 have been speaking Of the ap-
pearance of these stars as viewed
through the medium of our atmos-
phere. Their oolors, in some cases,
are 90 vivid as to exhibit marked dif-
fereRces; but, IL the air-envelope Of
the earth were taken away, their vary
ing tints would be much more nctlc-
cable. From what l have said, you