Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1906-08-11
THE SOLAR SYSTEMS
STRANGE JOURNEY.

The sun. taking with him the earth
and all the other planets which reyolye
around him. is every moment moving
onward through space towards the
stars, themselves members OF other
systems. 40 am enormous rate. The OBJ
ject Of this journey. where II viii lead
Us aud what force is impelling b.. none
can tell. says W. G. Bell. iu the Wind
sou Magazine The speed Is terrific.
Yet DO 81 significant in the vast the
alter iu which the celestial motions take
place where space and time are inf
mite At some future age. many mill
lions of years 90 come, 30 may be. the
heavens viii not have the appearance
they have now.
THE earths position I'm relation 70
them Will have changed
The journey We are making is to-
wards Hercules. a familiar constellation
in the northern heavens, and attractive
70 hose who possess telescopes by rea-
son OF the magnificent star cluster
found within U-ihe finest cluster OF
close stars Zoo the skies
The evidence OF this stupcndous
Journey which the sun is taking rests
uuun some uf the most delicate inyesu-
CATIONS - astronomy.
Ions ago U was found that the SOC
called fixed stars were boy uo means
fixed Iu the skies bat had motions
which in MANY cases were sufficiently
large Go be- mya sured. Il then became
natural Tor The Inference 90 De drawn,
that the Sun also which is merely "a
star. aud Dot very large one. might
b. moving away Iu space
This general movement suggests
thai there Is some central point which
Is the pivot oi lhe whole universe. but
such point has yet 90 he discovered.
The well-kuovu cluster called the
Pleiades Was once thought 10 be such
pivot. but this is now easily proved
10 De an error The cluster Is OF
great general interest. however
six OF the stars OF the Pleiades can
he clearly distinguished with the uu-
aided eye. Alsyone. the brightest. be-
Ing OF the third magnitude sur
rounding them Is q haze 81 light emit
ted by many smaller stars which are
too faint 90 be Individually separated,
but in a telescope or camera The clus-
ter Is found 90 be- composed 81 up
wards of two thousand siHs
The pace of the solar SYSTEMS jour
ney is put st something between four
and fourteen miles O. second on The
basis OF this large figure some start
ling calculations can De- made.
THE best-koNu star on the hely-
ems Is Sirius the dogstar II Is the
brightest of them all and its distance
has been put az 5000 ooo 100000 niles
The figures merely convey something
approaching INFINITE distance.
"Now. II % be- the case that our sun
is moving with O. velocity ~ fourteen
miles second. q viii travel nearly
A2 OGo 900 of miles in a single year
Consequently. N 90 were travelling Boo
a straight line in the direction Of Sirius.
ID would reach that star in about no.
000 years
In the short span Of human lIfe no
csanre can be- expected 90 be- observed
I'm the appearance ~ the heavens but
the reflection Is forced upon us that n
only the human race survives. a time
must come. when. owing Co the suns
Journey we shall hot see an the stars
dotted over the sky in their present
perspective. and some OF The constella-
lions Niu have lost the forms by which
they are now so easily identified