The aegis & intelligencer., 1900-04-20
SOME STRANGE SUNS.
WONDERS OF SPACE THAT ARE
SHOWN BY PHOTOGRAPHY.


SHOWN BY PHOTOGRAPHY
Blazing Stars Tint Double Their
Light and Heat and Fade Again
Every Twelve Hours, and One That
Does 1t Every Fifteen Minutes.
There have been some discoveries made
in astronomy which should open peoples
eyes to the narrowness Of the doctrine
that our little corner Of the universe Is
type of the whole. The particular discov-
cries referred to have been made with the
aid of photography, and they. relate to the
conditions prevailing in certain clusters
of stars which have long excited the as
tonishment Of astronomers by the count
less number of glowing orbs packed with
in their limits, but whose most wonderful
characteristics have only just been re-
vealed.
Among these star heaps-for when seen
with a powerful telescope they really do
resemble piles of glittering sand heaped
upon q table, thick in the middle and
scattered thinly around the edges-there
are two to which reference is especially
made-viz, the so called Great Cluster in
the constellation Hercules and the mass
named No in the constellation Libra. In
both Of these the central stars are so nu-
merous that they present perfect blaze
of light, amid which the eye cannot dis
tinguish the individual luminaries. But
photographs deal more satisfactorily with
them, fixing the images of many hun
dreds of the stars so that they can be ac-
curately counted and their comparative
magnitudcs correctly measured. In his
photographs of cluster No Professor So
lon Bailey got clear images of no less
than 900 of the assembled stars.
Now comes the surprising thing, q dis
covery which shows that we have only
just begun to uncover the wonders Of
starry space. Out of the 900 stars clear
ly photographed in the cluster no less
than So are variable, constantly winking,
as it were. At one time they are between
two and three times as bright as at an
ether. And evidently they all obey the
same law and are connected in their Won
derful vicissitudcs by some subtle link of
relationship, because while they do not
all rise and fall together in brilliance, yet
the period of change in every case is Of
nearly the same length, and the amount
of change is also nearly uniform.
Then the rapidity with which these
strange suns gain and lose their light is
absolutely startling. The average lapse
of time from one of their maXima Of
splendor to the next is only between 12
and 13 hours. Think what Il terror our
sun would be if twice every "a hours he
blazed out with between two and three
times his ordinary light and heat. And
that appears to be actually what occurs
with the variable stars in Ms. 1t is a
series of sudden outbursts by which they
are affected. Nearly half the time they
are at the minimum Of brightness. Sud
denly they begin to gain and to glow with
waxing energy. In an hour or two they
have doubled i'll radiant power, but still
the furnace becomes fercer. When they
have attained their greatest intensity,
they instantly fall off again and, less
rapidly than they had risen, sink back to
their original condition.
In the Great Cluster in Hercules, which
also contains an astonishing number of
variablcs, there is one star which actual
ly doubles its light in Is minutes. A con-
fagration could not be kindled as swiftly
as that. And this blazing star would
wrap the whole earth in its mounting
flames as easily rs n gaslight singes fly.
There are variable stars scattered sin
gly in the heavens which undergo changes
almost as wonderful, but they do not
arouse the interest that is awakened by
the sight of these clustered variables,
whose restlessness seems to arise from a
common cause and to indicate that there
is something mysterious to our apprehen-
sion occurring among them. One is re-
minded Of the old adage, Birds of a
feather flock together"
Besides, what is to be thought of suns
that behave after such a fashion, and
what kind Of life can exist in n star clus-
ter where n large portion of the congre-
gated orbs fare and flicker like guttering
candles? 1t doesn't look comfortable
from our terrestrial point of view. And
this is just where the significance of these
discoveries becomes manifest. We are too
prone to wear the green spectacles Of our
little terraqueous globe. The Importance
of Professor Bailey's photographs Of the
assemblage of winking and blinking stars
in Libra is largely due to the fact that
such revelations tend to free mems minds
from the bonds of the old, uninteiligcnt
notion that where we dwell is the garden
of the gods and that the earth and its
iuminaries set the pace for the whole
creation.
IL Is SOOu tnlnS TO De assured tnat
suns are not all rs quiet as ours, not all
cradle tenders for worlds filled with crea.
lures whom slight alterations of tempera-
ture and climate destroy as blast from
the north destroys the roses. Those stars
that periodically blaze and gleam with
redoubled ferceness of radiation give us
glimpse into n part of the universe
where the conditions of existence and of
vitality must necessarily be vastly differ
ent from what they are here. Yet the
same elements are there. The variety is
in their combinations. We shouldn't ex-
pect to meet men among the stars, but
there is no reason for expecting to meet
nobody there.
The infinite variety of the universe
adds zest to the hope that in future
state we shall see more of it. Why should
the ghosts of departed men and women
hover about this old humdrum earth
when such an infnity of wonders is offer
ed for exploration? Manifestly they
have never heard of M5 or of the Great
Cluster i'll Hercules or of the holes in the
Milky Way or Of the kingly splendors of
Aldebaran. II they had beard Of them,
they would have departed long ago to
visit such wonders. Let them get away
from the scene Of their dusty terrestrial
pilgrimage and Danish the memory of
their troubles here and refresh them
selves among the perennial maryels of
the star clusters.-Garrett z. Serviss in
New York Journal