The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-01-16
CURRENT THEORY
REGARDING THE SUN
DIR. sERENO r.. BISHOP STATES
1T AS 1T IS RECEIVED AMONG
ASTRONOMERS OF TO-DAY.


EDITOR STAR. Your issue of 18th
inst reprints a rather carelessly writ
ten article from the n. O. Picayune
upon theories Of the constitution of the
sun. A brief statement Of the actual
form Of the theory prevalent among
astronomers may be of interest to your
readers.
our sun is one of the visible stars,
and is proved by the Spectroscope to
possess a similar constitution To the
rest. 1t is not at all i'm state of
combustion, which is the consuming
of material by violent chemical COM
bination, generating heat. The heat
Of the sun is too intense to permit of
the chemical union of any of the
numerous elements proved by the spec
troscope to compose it. SO there is no
burning of fuel If it's heat is added to
by the pouring i'm of meteors, that is
solely I'm consequence of the extreme
force of impact with which their mo-
ton towards the sun is arrested their
hundred or more miles per second of
velocity being suddenly converted into
heat, just as meteorites are when
striking the earth's atmosphere. But
such a source of heat is necessarily
minute, as compared with the enormous
volumes of heat which the sun every
moment pours out into space.
There seems every reason to accept
as the true theory of the source Of
heat the suns gradual contraction up
on itself now estimated, as stated in
the Picayune article, at 220 feet of it's
diameter yearly. This necessarily in
wolves an end to it's emission of heat
as we'll as a gradual diminution of the
same.
In the slow lapse of many millions of
years, the great orb will have so
shrunken in upon itself, and so parted
with the heat which held it i'm it's for
mer expanded condition, that it will
become first but feebly luminous and
ultimately dark. Such is believed to
be the present condition of a multitude
of dead stars" Some astronomers
estimate these dead stars to be as
many as one million times as numerous
as the live ones. That is they are one
hundred times less distant from each
other. Estimating the average dis
lance of our nearest visible start neigh
bors at fifty trillions of miles, the aver
age distance from our system of dead"
stars would be half a trillion, or five
hundred thousand millions $500, 900 OOO,-
| 00O) of miles.
1t is apparent that in the lapse of
numberless ages, these dead stars are
likely to collide with each other, in
consequence of the force of gravita-
ton. Such collision would instantly
explode them into incandescent gas
of great tenuity forming an enormous
nebula, which would be the beginning
of a new live star. Thus probably is
the life of the star population of the
universe perpetually recruited. Such
collisions and star births are believed
to be occasionally witnessed, as a few
years ago in the case of the brilliant
star Nova Persia, which blazed out
suddenly, and gradually faded out in
a few months.
The life history of the visible stars
has been carefully traced out by means
of the spectroscope which discloses
their condition. They are classified in
to several stages, from incipient bright
ness as beginning to condense from the
nebula formed by collision, through
successive stages of brilliant heat, tc
stages of decline. Sirius belongs to one
of the most active stages. Our sun is
somewhat advanced in its decline.
How far the alleged dissolution OF
atoms as supposed to be seen in radiun
evolving vast stores of heat, may con.
tribute to the suns emission of heat
is something which cannot be usefully
discussed i'm our present stage o.
knowledge upon the subject Very
little is known about radium and it,
evolution of heat. re present theory
Of evolution of heat by gradual con
traction, is IA very complete and salts
factory one, fully supported by ever!
branch of scientific knowledge.
S. e. BISHOP.
Honolulu, January IA, 1905