The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-03-14
AN ExTRAoRDINARY STAR.
Nova Persei Keeps Astronomers
Guessing-What is Explanation
Of Its Incredible Speedp

rail- Mall Gazette.
As rule stellar problems have but the
They do not claim to come home to
mems business and bosoms," nor even
TO innuence navigators, as more element
airy astronomy has done ever since
But an exception must be made In tho
case of tho extraordinary behavior of
the new star which biazed up year ago
in the constellation OF Perseus. The APP
ing out with the brightness of Arcturus
or Vega In a place that had hitherto been
thought untenanted-is itself a phenom-
enon Of considerable interest. Such a
thing has only happened some thirty
times since men began to study the stars.
II was the outbreak Of the first cata-
logue of stars ever made-"Hipparchu
twas. IS. c., 12." to adopt Mr.. Gilbert's
blank verse. There ID ground for believ-
ing that the appearance OF a new star
indicates the birth or death of a eystem
that may far transcend our own in COM
plexity, magnitude and even in the In
tellectual and moral achievements Of
such forms of life as may have devel-
suns" On either theory Of the origin OF
the new star in Perseus a stellar catas-
trophe has to be postulated. One main
tains THAT the outburst OF light which
has made this UNNECESSARILY distant star
suddenly visible to US 10 due to some
stellar collision. such as II. G. Wells pic
tured in the brilliant fantasy called '"rhe
Star" but on a far greater scale. The
evolution of white-hot hydrogen in large
quantities from the interior Of a star
like our own sun--the explosion of a stel-
lar magazine. in fact. Either hypothesis
ton of any form of life which may have
existed in that far-distant system which
has thus suddenly been revealed to us.
II the nebuiar hypothesis be true. such
a 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
1t appears to be we'll outside the sphere
OF practical politics. But the latest OBJ
serva atoms of the recent behavior of the
new star have given rise to some curious
speculations as to possible terrestrial re-
suits Of it's totally abnormal behavior,
which. though they can be shown to be
without immediate foundation. are worth
consideration.
In two of the great American observa-
tories 1t has been observed that the new
star has apparently expanded into o
ments of the increase of this nebula which
were made last autumn were at nrst re-
garded as liner edible. 1t was thought that
there must be some error. or that pcrha ps
the American genius for hoaxes was
again exerting itself on the lines of Poe
and Locke. But II In now fully estab-
lished that portions of this nebula have
been seen to move over something like
a minute of arc in a month At first
sight this seems to be a very trihing af-
fair; II means that IL the movement were
continued at the same rate, the nebula
which surrounds Nova Persei would ap-
parently become as large as the moon in
about two years and a half. But when
one remembers the amazing distance at
which this nebula must be from the
earth. such movement is a most extra
ordinary and all but incredible phenom-
enon. 1t is. of course, obvious that the
real size of a stellar movement depends
on the distance at which We see 1t. only
within the past century have We been
able to detect any movement in the nxed
stars" We know that the nearest OF
them is about twenty-five millions Of
miles away-its distance is usually stated
as four "light-years," or the distance
which light would travel in four years
at its speed of 1861 900 miles per second.
Now. Nova Pervei is further away than
that. 1t becomes apparent that the VS.
ibIe amount Of the nebufa surrounding 1t
must correspond to some headlong rush
of whose velocity we have no conception.
The speed of the earth round the sun
Is about eighteen. miles . second and ID