The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-10-12

NORTH STAR is THREE SUNS.

No Eye at the 'ESEescope Can Sea
Them, but the Camera Proves 1t.
The news from Lick observatory that
away from us, has been found to be
not one star, but three, swinging
around In great orbits like the moon,
earth and sun, is another remarkable
result of the application OF photo spec
troscopy to the telescope study of the
heavens. Always fascinating, the
search for double and multiple stars
has become of the highest interest
since the spectroscope has made it pos
slble to discover multiple stars which
the greatest telescopes do not reveal
to the eye. The three components of
POlaris cannot be seen with the most
powerful telescope in the world. But
the Lick star spectroscope, attached to
the great SO inch refractor, makes it
plain that there are suns revolving
about sun where the eye distfn-
guishes but one twfnkling light.
Ten years ago at the Harvard uni
verstty observatory the first photo
spectrosropic multiple star was discov-
cred unexpectedly. The star Mizar,
the middle star Of the handle of the
Big Dipper. has been called naked
eye" double because it has visible
companion, Alcor, close to it. But Rio
cioh in 1850 discovered with the tel.
escope that Mizar bad telescope dou-
BILE. Mizar seems to have been the
first double star discovered with a
telescope. The apparent distance be-
tween Mizar and Alcor is nearly 40,
times the distance that separates the
components of Mizar The telescope
shows, too, that there are other stars.
between Mizar and Alcor
Two centuries after the telescope re-
vealed two stars in Mar the spectre
scope showed that the brighter Of the
components was itself made up of two
stars. In photographs taken at the
Harvard observatory IN 1889 the * line
in the spectrum of Mizar appeared dou
BILE. In other plates the line was sin
gle; in others it was hazy. A close
scrutiny of all the plates showed that
the line was double at intervals of 80
days. This proved to astronomers that
the brighter component Of Mizar was
really two stars. A spectroscope takes
cognizance Of the motion Of a star to
or from the earth. When one star be-
gins to approach and the other to re-
cede from us, the lines In the Spectrum
Of the approaching star will be dis
placed toward the violet end, while
those of the receding star will be dis
placed toward the red end The lines
will at first appear hazy, but when the
approach and recession Of the stars
reach maximum the lines will appear
double The calculated distance be-
tween the components of Mizar il
about 143yOOAOOO miles, and the bril-
nancy Of the star Is estimated to be
over hundred times greater than that
Of our sun
A number Of other photo spectre
scoplc multiple stars have been discov-
cred recently. With the Lick telescope
and spectroscope II have been found.
This method Of discovery came about
from the use Of the spectra to deter
mine the velocity with which stars ap-
preached or receded from the earth.
The North Star. It was found short
while ago, Is now shooting earthward
at q velocity Of 18 miles second Two
Of the suns Of the North Star triplet
revolve about each other every four
days, and these two swing about the
tldrd--New' York Sun.