The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-03-11
plumb LINE IN SPACE
a WONDERFUL ASTRONOMICAL
DISCOVERY.


EDITOR STAR. A very interesting
and notable astronomical discovery is
stated I'm Nature of January 80. by
unique method AN estimate is made of
the distance from our system of the
wonderful new star Nova Persei, which
famed out so brilliantly year ago. The
distance figured out lis fifty times the
longest ever before actually determined,
being five thousand, million, million,
81. 900. 600 600 600 OOW miles. This BIS fifty
million times the distance of our sun.
1t is also l3g times the distance of the
nearest star yet measured by its paral-
lax. Alpha Centauu, which is 30 million
million miles distant That nearest star
is so far away that its light takes some
years to reach the earth. But from the
remote Nova persei 10 is found that
light traversed the distance i'm not less
than $50 years.
Thus it is learned that the immense
explosion whose flame appeared to us
only last year. actually burst forth 200
years ago i'm the days of oliver CrOm-
well. 1t is now seen only as a very FAINT
telescope star but may have undergone
much greater change i'm two and "a half
centuries.
But how could such distance be
measured? Not by the parallaN of the
star, which is invisible The eNplana-
ton is a most interesting one, ana Is
worthy of a little patient attention.
When Nova Persei, by some kind of a
collision, exploded into a ball of fire
TO- 300 times as brilliant a S our sun, there
shot forth from it i'm all directions rays
which Illuminated the gauZy nebulous
vapor which hung i'm darkness around.
That light pushed outward at the rate
of 600 miles in a second, equal to oiS
million miles in an hour, l5,5o2 millions
i'm a day. or nearly 800 thousand mill
lion miles in a year.
That Illuminated area kept charging
month by month so as to appear in our
telescopes as small circle of extremely
faint gauzy light. photographs of which
have appeared i'm some scienthc jour
nails THAT disk of light was at first
supposed to be luminous vapor driven
out In a nebula from the new star.
/ Later consideration determined 1t TO pe
| the spread of the light of the orlglhal
/ explosion, Illuminating the dark heDu-
| lous vapors hanging around. Ihese ne
/ bulae when thus Illuminated are seen
| to be spiral .
The gradual outward spread of this
/ illumination furnishes the data for cal
! culating the distance of that star III
$50 DAYS the Illuminated area around
Nova was found to subtend a certain
number of seconds of arc. BUT IL IL
known that in $50 days light Woulo
travel nearly four million million miles
! Inat distance is Iiltl 'L'l e 'i-N .
of tha faint spot around Nova Persei
Taking the few seconds of that radius
as the angle for a simple problem IN
trigonometry, the distance is iounu u
be. as stated above 5000 million, mlluoI
| miles.
This is the first instance of an actua
measurement of such an enormous sta
distance. 1t could have been accom-
plished only by that very peculiar com
\ bination of conditions. 1t seems u
) mark an important step i'm the progress
of astronomy. 1t gives us a genuine ap
proximation to the actual distance o
the Milky Way one of whose seemingL
minute stars Nova Persei seems to be
our Astronomy has at last dropped
sounding line deep into the far depth
of space.
$. L. BISHOP,
Honolulu. March I. 1902.