The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-20
PROF. RITCHEY, OF YERKEs OBJ
sERyAToRY, MAKES START
LING DISCOVERY
THEORY OF LA PLACE PROVED
Demonstration of the Fact That the
Universe Is Passing Through a
FIux of Evolution and
Dissolution.
NOVA OF PERsEUs TELLS STORY
Special toAThe GIoke.

CHICAGO, Nov 19-The Record Her
aid tomorrow will print the folloWiug:
"Prof. c.. W. Ritchey, of the YerkeS OBJ
servatory, at Williams Bay, Wis, has
made a discovery of startling significance
and tremendous Importance in the his
tory of the evolution of the universe. In
effect the brilliant astronomer has just
finished observations which give the first
positive proof Of the celebrated nebuiar
theory OF creation announced by the fam
Gus Frenchman, La Place, and of the
widely entertained belief that solar sys-
tenn 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.
Prof. Ritcheys observations go even
farther than this They go to show the
truth of the theory of Herbert Spencer,
that the entire universe is passing through
fiux of evolution and dissolution; that
nebular gas itself is developed by mighty
changes in the stars themselves; that
stars are suddenly expanded by eXpio-
sion, or otherwise, into enormous masses
of thin gas infinitely more -tenuous than
the atmosphere, and that this gas again
contracts and is converted into suns like
our own, with probably trains of attend
ant planets.
H1tchey'S Great Discovery
Astronomers have long believed that
the nebulae, those great masses OF Ium-
inous gas existing throughout space at
incalculable distances from the earth,
were the matters of solar system and
star clusters like our own. But no OBJ
server has been able to see the slightest
sign Of change in the structure. or
course, it has been believed that change
there must be, but nobody had been able
to@prove the fact. This has now been
done by Prof Ritchey.
The celestial object upon which Prof
Ritchey has made his observation is the
mysterious star Nova Of Perseus which
suddenly appeared last February in the
northern sky, blazing with a strange
light in place where there had been no
star before. It's light rapidly increased
until it became a star of first magnitude
q Then it gradually faded away and now it
is only star of the sixteenth magnitude.
At present it is altogether invisible to
the unaided vision, and if it continues to
diminish in brilliance it WILL soon be i'll
visible even in the great Yerkes tele-
scope, the most powerful In the world
through which star below the seven-
teenth magnitude can be seen.
TO account for these new stars-tle
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 diminutlon
was due to a reverse process. This
theory, however, was soon abandoned.
TO account for the phenomena seen in
the new star it's sudden blasting UP and
it's subsequent dying out, Prof. Ritchey
settled upon the theory that the new
light had been caused by tremendous
explosion proportional in size to the size
of the star. This latter theory is now
borne out by his observations.
Told by the Camera.
On the night of Sept, 20 Prof Ritchey
photographed Nova of Perseus by means
of the twenty -four-inch reflector at the
observatory. The negative disclosed the
fact that the star was surrounded by a
nebulae, which had been previously
shown by another observer. But On the
plate made by Prof. Ritchey there were
two fairly dense wisps of nebulosity to-
wards the west with a curve to the
north, merging into the eonvolutons of
the nebula.
This was startling fact, but Prof.
Ritchey patiently waited for a favorable
night to secure another negative. The
looked for opportunity came last We'd
nesday night. For seven hours he expos
ed his plate to the light of the nysteri-
Gus star. When he looked at the mega
tive he observed fact in which he
all at once recognized the proof so long
sought and so ardently wished for by
observers everywhere. The spots of
density in the west field of the nebula
had moved.
The conclusions which follow from this
discovery are stupendous. They lead to
the positive knowledge that in vast
CULTS of space nature is slowly moldmg
suns and planets and solar systems and
star clusters; that nebulae are convert
ed into suns and suns into nebulae;
that catastrophes involving unthinkable
quantities of matter are by no means
rare in the infinite womb of space, and
that out of the chaos and confusion thus
produced order and symmetry emerge
after ages of evolution
Prof. Ritchey's discovery is destined
to make stir in every quarter of the
learned world, for it is nothing less than
actual proof of the fact that the struc-
ture of the nebulae are subject to OBJ
servation and change-the one fact of
celestial mechanics, the proof of which
has been most ardently desired