Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-25
THE NEW" ASTRONOMY
OF THE SKIES REJECT
CONCLUSIONS OF DIR. WALLACE.
E. Walter Maunder Of Greenwich OBJ
servatory Opposes the Census
Of the Stars" Theory.
From the London News.

From the London News.
DR.. Alfred Russell Wallace has shocked
the astronomers. In dealing with Mans
Place in the Universe he has had the
temerity to suggest that the stars Of
heaven are numbered. and that with our
modern telescopes We can actually see to
the frontiers of creation! No man is bet.
ter qualified to deal with this assertion
than Mr.. e. Walter Maunder of the Green.
witch observatory, who replies to DR.. Wal.
lace In the April number of Knowledge.
The point at issue is really very simple.
OF course, in the Unreasonable beyond
there may lie things which man can never
penetrate. But DIR. Wallace's contention
Is that at this moment. with the present
powers Of our telescopes and their photo.
graphic accessories, we can range beyond
the farthest star, and can assert that the
visible universe is not merely bit meas.
ured out Of inf1nity, but a definite struc.
tured thing surrounded by the blackness OF
an awful void No unknown quantities. no
abstruse mathematical computations, are
| involved here. It Is merely a question OF
how much we already see.
The Opposing Views.
| I will try to put in a nutshell the ops
posing views. DR.. Wallace's first point re.
lates to the diminishing number of stars
revealed our telescopes get larger and
larger. Mr.. Maunder replies that this may
be partly accounted for by the ABSORB.
ton of light as the object glasses OF our
telescopes grow thicker. This takes no &C.
count of our giant rejecting telescopes.
where the light does not pass through an
object glass at all, and. of course, the eye.
piece remains the same.
But DR.. Wallace offers a precise numer-
lcal statement as to what has already been
seen. Down to the ninth magnitude the
| number Of new stars was found roughly to
multiply by three at each downward step.
At that point the progression was arrested.
We can now see stars not only of the tenth,
eleventh and twelfth, but even Of the sew
enteenth magnitude. Had the rate of in.
crease been maintained with each growth
In our visual power there ought to have
been 100000 stars of the seventeenth
magnitude. Instead Of that there are only
hundred million and of course these may
quite easily be smaller stars nearer than
the most distant ninth magnitude lumi.
nartes.
Whence the enormous deficit in the num-
Der Of smaller and remoter stars revealed
No consideration of defective power Of in
struments or imperfect transparency Of
ether will apply. One seventeenth magni-
tude star is ipso facto as visible as another,
the fact that already, long before We
reached our present visual powers, the sup
ply Of new and fainter stars began to fail,
Is strong argument in favor of the suppo-
stion that we now can look right through
space beyond.
Vault of Stellar Fire.
DR.. Wallace's next point is one based on
mathematical principle. and requires an
effort Of close attention. If the stars ex-
tended infinitely, they would absolutely
cover the sky, which would be suffused
with a fiery glow. There would be no night.
To whatever point of the heavens a line
should be drawn some time or other 1t
would strike a star. Within twice the dis
lance Of the farthest visible star the stars
would be eight times as many as the Wis.,
ible, within ten times the distance there
would be a thousand times as many, within
a hundred times the distance a million
times the number of the visible; the space,
and therefore it's presumed contents, In
creasing as the cube of the distance. The
diminution of light by distance would be
compensated by the increase in the number
of stars This little planet. and every other,
would be frizzled in the focus of a vast
vault Of fire.
Mr. Maunders reply to this is a very
striking one. DR.. Wallace, he says, has
forgotten the dark stars" which accord
ing to Sir Robert Ball are ''incomparably
more numerous than those can see.'
If an infinity Of bright Stars would make
the sky blaze as the sun 1oonday, equally
admixture of dark ST $ would shut us
in by veil which no Light from infinite
distance could penetrate.
The Dark Stars.
But is this curtain of dark stars CON.
sistent with the observed facts? DR.. Wall
laces infinity of bright stars was a man
of straw" supposition set up only to be
demolished as absurd. The curtain OF
dark stars" is only an explanation-only
renders possible the 'infinity" that DR..
Wallace denied-if it be itself true and real.
But what would be the appearance of the
heavens on the hypothesis of an infinity
of bright and dark stars mixed? This
would mean that every point of the heavens
must be covered by a star, bright or dark,
and therefore the dark stars would have
to outnumber the bright by something like
two billions to one. Furthermore the mixed
assembly of bright and dark must be as
sumed to be always in motion, shifting
revolving circulating like the crowd in q
ballroom What would be the result? Why,
that the visible stars could never be two
minutes the same. They would appear and
disappear, consultations would form and
vanish, with the rapidity Of a Kaleidoscope.
All the remoter stars would be visible only
for brief periods at long and irregular in
tervals. And yet for ages the stars have
rest! The hypothesis of an indefinite ex-
tent of mixed bright and dark stars is even
more impossible than that of an infinity OF
bright stars alone.
True, the number of dark stars, Is enor-
nous, but they are mostly of mere PLAN
etary rank Eclipsing stars, so far from
being the universal rule of the heavens. are
chiefly confined TO the small class of BIZ
naries" where a light and dark orb re-
yolye around each other in fixed PERIOD
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