Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-04-05
AN UNLUCKY STAR.
THE SIGN OF IT is IN THE WEST
ERN SKY.

Tidinss From Other Worlds That Portend Dis
aster and Indicate Possibilities Which May
Befal the Inhabitants Of Earth-There May
Be a Clash Of Universes.
On Washington's birthday tele-
gram was received in America an
nouncipg that DIR. T. d. Anderson, a
keen-eyed amateur astronomer of Edin-
burg, had seen new star in the con-
stellation Perseus. Any one can find
it in the sky now by imagining a line
to be drawn through the two bright
stars Alpha and Beta Auriga. The
The meeting point of these two lines
is near the new star which is now of
the first magnitude and the equal in
brilliancy OF the bright Orion stars.
About s o'clock in the evening the
two Aurig9 stars are near the zenith
and the new star lower down toward
the west, and it is still easily to be
seen at 10 or IL o'clock, its brightness
making it conspicuous.
When it was first discovered on Feb.
81 it was more than so times fainter
than now. A hasty examination of
the invaluable series of steller photo
graphs stored at the Harvard college
observatory shows that on Feb. 10 and
earlier dates the star was at least 5000
times less brilliant. 1t has increased
from the tenth magnitude. or fainter,
to the first magnitude in two days.
Its brilliancy has increased thousands
of times in this brief interval. In its
present brilliancy it is called a new"
star.
Consider what these bald facts sig
nifty. Every star is q sun, like our
own sun. There is no reason to doubt
that some, at least, Of the hundred
million stars shown in our large tele-
scopes are accompanied by planets
our own star-the sun-has eight. If
they exist-and who shall say that
they do not?-all sorts of conditions
prevail on their surfaces. Some of
them are worn out like our moon. No
air and no water are to be found there.
They are worn out, just as volcanic
pumice is worn out. Some, like the
planet Jupiter of our system, are at a
temperature so high that no life OF
any kind, as we understand it, can
subsist upon them. They are like
the burning volcanic lakes OF Hawaii.
Among the hundreds Of millions there
may be hundreds of thousands whose
su faces are now supporting life-plant
life, animal life, human life perhaps.
Lower the temperature of the tropic
seas by 10 degrees and thousands OF
millions Of organisms will die from
lack of heat alone. Millions of others
will perish from lack of food. Raise
the temperature slowly and the Arctic
Esquimaux will evolve into the Arab.
The change in this new star come in a
moment. In two days its brilliancy
and its temperature have increased
10000 times. Consider tho fate oi
men, animals and plants if this sun oil
ours suddenly increased its fervent
heat even q hundred foldl
If this unlucky star in Perseus was
indeed accompanied by train of plan.
cts, what . fearful fate was theirs. II
may be ours tomorrow can telli
Or, we may pass it off with laugh
and say, and rightly say, that the old
world has endured for millions OF year.
and is likely to endure for millions
more, rs indeed it is. But the catas'
trophe marked by the burning of this
new light in the west has an impres
siveness of its own. Let us stop mo-
ment in our making of love, or money
or fame, it may be, and say that some
where, somehow, q star has fallen, a
sun has set; and that the conse
quences to some one, we know moi
who, have been literally overwhelm'
ing. The sign of it is in the sky.