Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1906-04-06
THE STARRY SYSTEM
Il ist so VAST THAT ITS LIMITS ARE
sEYoND COMPUTATION.
Jonsidcrias Some stupendouB Dis
ranees by Scale Greatly Reduced.
4 Comparison With Our Relatively
Small solar System.


Comparison With Our Relatively
Small solar Syhtem.
1t is worth while making au effort TO
picture 10 ourselves the vast extent or
the starry system in which we reside.
Having gained some faint notion OF
the extent of The lesser solar system,
which occupies Il small corner of the
stellar system we must work outward
from lllat beginning. Let us take for
our unit Of measurement the space
which separates The earth from the
sun, and let the o.. 00O,U0O miles of this
distance he represented I'm our minds
by single inch. In proportion the sun
Itself must he pictured by n tiny ball
less than one hundredth part Of an
inch in diameter, while our earth must
he a mere speck. less than one ten.
thousandlh OF an inch In diameter.
And This little sun and this minute
earth must liz just an inch asuuder.
Following cut the same idea, Mer-
curry and Venus, being closer TO the
sun than we are. have To lie less than
al inch away from him. while Jupiter
will be hive Inches off. Saturn will be
ten inches or. Uranus will be over
nineteen inches off. Neptune will be
almost thirty inches off. Then the so.
lar system as alwhOle. leaving only ont
OF the question certain comets which
travel farther. will be Enclosed IN cir
Gle less than two yards in diameter
The question arises next. What will
hp ibp inn IN CT ~ th.,- 81 rlI
system on This same scale of measure
ment: lf The solar system is to be
comprised with Il hoop not two yards
across. how wide a space should we
allow Ia The surrounding system OF
stars. t''our univerSe:" How nenr will
he the nearest of outlying stars? And
the answer Is sufficiently startling. If
file sun is reckonrd to be one inch
away from our eurth. IL Neptune is
reckoned 10 he less than three feet
away from the sun. then. OH The same
scale. the star which lies closest Of all
outer stars in the whole universe to ms.
Alpha Centanr by name, must be
reckOned as lying NJ distance of
about three and II half miles. And be-
tween the two--nnthing: AZ least moth
Ing IN the shnpe OF a star. An occn-
sionn comet may Ing slowly along In
the darkness. finding Its way from one
sun system 10 another. and dark bod
les. cooled suns may possibly hoat here
or there unseen by us. but of stars,
radiant with heat and light, none Is
found in that wide area.
Astronomical writer's sometimes Talk
OF stars lin the vicinity" OF the sun.
and This is what Is meant by '.yicini-
ty." Think of the distances implied.
Our whole solar system Is first brought
tfown into small circle, two Yards
across-everr inch In those yards stand.
ing for more than 90.000.0O0 miles aud
then on every side and above and be-
low is an accomplishing void OF three
aud n half miles, every inch OF those
miles again representing more than
9O,OW,HUO miles. And then we come
upon one cleaning star. Only one
quite SO near Another star In the
suns vicinity" known as 81 Cygni,
would lie at Il distance OF seven miles.
and the brilliant Sirius would he over
10 miles or Others must be placed
at distances of 20 miles, 80 miles. 100
miles. | is easy to start with list OF
these figures. II is not easy TO saw
where one should stop That the star.
ry system has limits we do not doubt
but 70 define those limits is not posi-.
bic. On such q scale as Is given above
those limits certainly would not lie
within q distance OF 100 miles nor or
1000 miles.
Ii Is believed that some dim stars.
barely to be detected, may he 10000
times as far away as our suns nearest
neighbor, A lpha Centauri ana this at
once gives. even on our much reduced
scale, a line from the centeriof So 600
miles. Suppose that the limits of the
stellar system lay somewhere about
there. Thlrty-Bve thousand miles each
way from the center would mean di-
ameter for the whole OF 10000 miles.
Imagine 4 starry system 10000 miles
across from side to side, each inch In
those miles representing 92000.000 Of
real miles. aud somewhere IN the midst
OF 1t our small solar system, Just two
yards across. separated from all other
stars by,a wide blank OF three or four
miles.
That would be stupendous enough.
l'ut we have no reason whatever for
surprising that the limits of our uni
verse do lie there. The true boundaries
OF the stellar system may he twice as
FAR. four times as FAR ten times as far.
We do not even know with certainty
that our solar system is placed any
where near its center. though this
seems rather likely. Far of as the
boundary reaches in one direction, 1t
may reach much farther In another d.
rection. Chambers Journal.