The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-17
SEES NEW NEBULAR THEORY.

| SEES NEW NEbULAh LlCONL'
Laws Governing the Birth Of Stars
Must Be Modifled-An Important
Discovery-Strinking Result of Study
in Binary Stars, Particularly Sirius,
at Flagstaff, Arizona,
| Professor T. j. j. Sees lecture last
night in the Lowell Institute course, on
"Sidereal Astronomy" was signaled by
the announcement of a new discovery
in astronomical physics, not merely or
one isolated fact added to previous &C
foundations, but a new law in the
| grander congratulations of the science
1t Is the assertion that nebulous, starry
and planetary bodies of all kinds, now
| luminous, are growing hotter, rather
than cooler; subverting the previously
accepted notion laid down in La Place s
| famous nebular hypothesis, that these
| luminous bodies are all cooling from
previous incandescent and hotter stage.
The law as suggested by Professor See
is that the temperatures of given lu-
minous bodies vary inversely as the
radii-that is, that the shorter the ra-
dius, the hotter they become.
The "nebular hypothesis" which, in
case the new law is accepted must
undergo a material modification, while
having no immediate bearing on act
ual astronomical work of to-day, is one
of the grandest conceptions in science,
and is, in some aspects the foundation
of astronomical theory. AS elaborated
by La Place, and generally accepted by
later physicists, it conceives all heaven
L. f;,,er In, ta forr, of
tenuous, disconnected matter, which,
in obedience to the laws of gravitation,
aggregated first into the flmy bodies
known as nebulae. BY continued con-
traction, under the influence of gravita-
ton, they become successfully stars
and then planet-like bodies-that is,
mountainous. There was in this the
assumption that in the nebulous stage
the components of the mass are in
tensely hot, incandescent gases, and
that the successive stages are cooling
stages; that, for example, the next in
order to the nebulolis stage are the
white, intensely heated stars, like
Sirius; then the red, relatively cooler
stars, like Aldebaran, which type, on
further cooling, becomes black, nom
luminous, and consequently, invisible.
Professor See, who has done brilliant
work at Flagstaff, Arizona, in the study
of multiple stars, found discrepancies
in the results observed, which were
somehow at variance with his funda-
mental astronomical theory. A prolong-
ed comparison of the data of several
stars--work of a severely technical
character and involving profound
mathematical processes and particular
ly study of the dark companion to
Srius--led to the conclusion that the
above order of events was faulty; that
the true order must be conceived as Of
nebulae beginning their history in a
gaseous and very attenuated state as
has always been understood, but not
intensely heated. They were rather in
these first stages, the absolute zero |
of physics, set at nearly 500 degrees be-
low zero of the Fahrenheit scale.
The ensuing stages Of the bodies in !
question were attended by instead of
cooling, an increasingly heated cond-
ton, the contraction due to the action |
of gravitation, bringing about molecu-
lar collisions as the particles had |
smaller and smaller scope for free |
movement, that generated heat and in |
the development of the body, became in |
succession, red, relatively cool stars,
then white or blue, intensely heated .
stars, which in time reached a liquid I
and then solid consistency, when, and /
not till then, cooling process would .
ensue. Such stars as Sirius, Vega and |
the very bright stars are nearing the
end thus of their cosmcal life, at least
as stars visible to the eye.
The sun comes in the category, also,
as a relatively old star and approach
ing the stage when by the contraction
of it's disc it will give less and less heat
to the EARTH and will of itself soon las
Economically speaking) reach the stage
Of liquefaction, when it will cool and be-
come non-luminous, rather a receiver
than a source of heat. In the light of
Professor Sees law, which he has sub
jected to profound mathematical ana
ysis, and which he is assured will bear
the critical examination Of the scientific
world astro physical theories must be
remodeled or at least rearranged.
The nebular, hypothesis accounts for
planetary bodies, among them the earth
Jy a species of division from the sun
1T a remote stage in solar history, in
he form of a ring of nebulous matter
rom the solar equator which ring sub
;equently consolidated according to
we'll understood laws, into the present
shape of the earth. This suppose that
Turing these early stages the earth was
l more or less nebulous, gaseous, in :
ensely heated body, just as the sun
vas supposed to be.
Professor See says no. The present
temperature of the sun, estimated at
600 degrees, is on an ascending SCALE |
md when the earth was cast off as
lebular ring, it's temperature was no
more than 100 degrees on the absolute 5
Gale, or nearly 400 degrees below zero,
fahrenheit. By Sees law, the tempera-