Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-11-20
CHANGE N PLANETS
Professor Ritchey Makes an I'm.
portant Discovery in the As.
Economical World.
Evidences Of the Process Of Ev.
olution Secured in Photo.
graphs Of Stars.
Nature Slowly Moulding Suns
and Planets From Floating
Gaseous Matter.

| Williams Fay, Wis, Nov. 20.-Profes
sor G. w. Ritchey of the Yerkes observ
| atory has made a discovery of start
| ling significance and tremendous i'm
portance in the history of the evolution
| of the universe.
In effect the brilliant astronomer has
| just finished observations which prove
| the truth of the celebrated nebularl
| theory of creation announced by the ia
nous Frenchman, La Place. and of the
widely entertained belief that The solar
| system, and even star clusters, have
| been formed by millions of years of slow
evolution from great bodies of gaseous
matter floating in the inconceivable
abysses of space.
Professor Ritchey's observations &c
even farther than this. They go to show
the truth of the theory of Herbert Spen-
Ger that the entire universe is passing
thru a fiux of evolution and dissolu-
tion-that nebular gas itself is devel-
oped by mighty changes in the stars
themselves-that stars are Suddenly ex-
panded by explosion, or otherwise, into
enormous masses of thin gas. infinitely
more tenuous than atmospheric air, and
that this gas again contracts and Il
converted into suns like our own with
probably trains of attendant planets.
In short Professor Ritchey has proved
that nebula, with q star for q nucleus.
changes it's shape and the quantity OF
light 1t emits, and that these changes
are so rapid as to be observable within
the compass Of few hours.
This is one of the greatest discoveries
in the history of astronomy, and Pro-
fessor Ritchey alone deserves all the
credit. 1t is the first work of abso-
lutely great magnitude done at the
Yerkes observatory, and 1t will insure
to Professor Ritchey foremost place
among the world-renowned men of
science.
Astronomers have long believed that
the nebulae-those great masses of lum-
nous gas existing turnout space at in
calculable distances from the earth
were the matrices Of solar systems and
star clusters like our own. But no OBJ
server has been able to see the slightest
sign of change in the structure. OF
course 1t has been believed that change
there must be but nobody has been able
to prove the fact. This has now been
done by Professor Ritchey, and tina
highly original scientist is now pusily
engaged in preparing for the technics
journals an announcement of his dis
covery.
The celestial object upon which Pro-
40 J, 1o chs
tons Is the mysterious star Nova of
Perseus, which suddenly appeared last
February in the northern sky, blazing
with strange light in place where
there had been no star before. It's light
rapidly increased until it become star
OF the first magnitude. Then it gradu-
ally faded away until now it is only Of
the sixteenth magnitude. AT present 1t
is altogether invieiblesto the unaided
vision. and If it continues to diminish in
brilliancy 1t will soon be invisible even
in the great Yerkes telescope-the most
powerful on the world-thru which no
star below the seventeenth magnitude
can be seen.
To account for these new stars-the
star of Bethlehem is supposed to have
been one Of them-many theories have
been held by astronomers. In the in
stance Of Nova of Perseus, the present
star, some observers believed its in
creasing brilliance was caused by the
star speeding toward the earth with
great rapidity, and that its diminution
was due to reverse process. This the
DRY, however. was soon abandoned.
Professor Ritchey says that the star is
certainly not less than twenty-eight
years from the earth-that is, distance
of about 1913, 100000 miles. This,
however. is its minimum distance. 1t
can not be much nearer. On the other
hand, it may be thousand times as far
away, distance to be measured in hun
dreds of quadrillions of miles.
Were 1t nearer than the distance
which light traverses in a space of
twenty years-at the rate of about 1885,
900 miles a second-it would show a
parallax, but no parallax can be detect
ed, altho sought for sedulously. The
therefore, is that all the
marvellous phenomena seen in the new
starts sudden blazing UP and its sub
sequent dying out-occurred at leas
twenty years ago, or even thousands
years ago.
EXPENSIVE ELECTIONS.