Evening star., 1902-03-17
STAR EXTRAORDINARY
NOVA PERsE1 MYsTIF1Es WISE
MEN WITH TELESCOPES.
What is the Explanation OF It's IN
credible SpeedP-Serious Stel-
lar Problems.

From the London Pail Mall Gazet'e.
k q r,,le stellar problems have hG1 tne
,.es, connection with practcal me.
Tbo,- 10 NOT claim to come home TO men
business and bosoms,'' nor even TO mflu-
.nca nayipators as more elementary as
tronon,y has done ever since Greenwich op-
Sarpa,ory was founded. But an exception
nust he made In the case OF the extfaofdi-
nary behavior of the new star when piaZeo
M a wear ago in the constellation OF fel-
seus The appearance of such star-sud-
denly flashing out with the brightness OF
Arctur11s or Vega in place that had hltn-
erto been thought untenanted-is itself
phenomenon of considerable interest
Precedents.
Such a thing has only happened some
thirty times since men began to study the
stars 1t was the outbreak of new star
which led to the formation of the first cata-
lcgl1e of stars ever made-"Hipparchus
twas b c. 1874" 10 adapt Mr.. Gilbert
blank verse There is ground for believing
that the appearance Of a new star indicates
the birth or death of system that may far
transcend our own In compiexltE, masnl-
tude and even in the intellectual and moral
achievements Of such forms of life as may
have developed where other planets circle
other suns.
On either theory Of the origin of the new
star in Perseus a stellar catastrophe has
to be postulated One maintains that the
outburst Of light which has made this i'm
measlIrah bly, distant star suddenly visible to
us is due to some stellar collision such as
Mr., H CT Wells pictured in the brilliant
fantasy called The Star" but on a far
greater scale. The other holds that it
arose from a sudden evolution Of white-hot
hydrogen in large quantities from the in
terror of a star like our own sun-the ex-
Nf tell ,ut. In, rp1t
Either hypothesis involves, almost certain
ly, the destruction of any form of life
which may have existed in that fardistant
system which has thus suddenly been re-
vealed TO us. If the nebular hypothesis be
true. such collision as may have occurred
here was possibly the originator of our
own solar system-or such an explosion
may bring about its end. In either case the
affair has lively interest for us. though
Ii appears to be well outside the sphere of
practical politics. But the latest observa-
tions of the recent behavior of the new
star have given rise to some curious specu-
lations as TO possible terrestrial results of
Its totally abnormal behavior which, though
they can be shown to be without imme-
diate foundation. are worth consideration.
A Headlong Rush.
In two of the great American observa-
tories IL has been observed that the new
star has apparently expanded into nebula
of appreciable size. The measurements of
the increase of this nebula which were
made last autumn were at first regarded
incredible II was thought Nat there
must be some error, that perhaps the
American genius for hoaxes was again ex-
erting itself on the lines OF Poe and Locke.
But II is now fully established that por-
t,ons of this nebula have been seen to move
over somethink like a minute of arc In a
month. At first sight this seems to be a
very trif1ing affair; II means that if the
movement We're continued at the same
rate, the nebuia which surrounds Nova
Persei would apparently become as large
as the moon in about two and half
years.
But when one remembers the amazing
distance at which this nebula must be
from the earth such a move rls ut IS a most