Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-06
THE STARRY SYSTEM
1T Is so VAST THAT ITS LIMITS ARE
BEYOND COMPUTATION.

Considering Some Stupendous Dis
tances by a Scale Greatly Reduced.
A Comparison With Our Relatively
Small Solar System.
1t is worth while making an effort to
picture to ourselves the vast extent of
Having gained some faint notion OF
the extent of the lesser solar system,
which occupies small corner of the
stellar system, we must work outward
from that beginning. Let us take for
our unit of measurement the space
which separates the earth from the
sun, and let the 81 100000 miles of this
distance be represented in our minds
by single inch. In proportion the sun
itself must be pictured by tiny ball
less than one hundredth part of an
inch in diameter, while our earth must
be a mere speck, less than one ten
thousandth of an inch in diameter.
And this little sun and this minute
earth must be just an inch asunder
Following out the same idea, Mer-
curry and Venus. being closer to the
sun than we are, have to be less than
an inch away from him, while Jupiter
will be five inches off, Saturn will be
ten inches off, Uranus will be over
nineteen inches off, Neptune will be
almost thirty inches off. Then the So
lar system as whole. leaving only out
of the question certain comets which
travel farther. will be inclosed in cir
Gle less than two yards in diameter.
10
be the proportionate size of the stellar
system on this same scale of measure
ment? If the solar system is to be
comprised with hoop not two yards
across, how wide n space should we
allow to the surrounding system of
stars, "our universe?" How near will
be the nearest of outlying stars? And
the answer is sufficiently startling. If
the sun is reckoned TO be one inch
away from our earth, if Neptune is
reckoned to be less than three feet
away from the sun, then, on the same
scale, the star which lies closest of all
outer stars in the whole universe to US,
Alpha Centauri by name, must be
reckoned as lying at q distance of
about three and n half miles. And be-
tween the two-nothing; at least moth
ing in the shape of a star. An occa-
sional comet may lag slowly along in
the darkness. finding its way from one
sun system to another, and dark bod
les, cooled suns, may possibly float 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 ''vicini-
ty." Think of the distances implied.
Our whole solar system is first brought
down into a small circle, two yards
inch in those yards stand
ing for more than 100000 miles-and
then on every side and above and be-
low is an encompassing void of three
and half miles, every inch of those
miles again representing more than
DC, 100000 miles. And then we come
upon one cleaning star. Only one
quite so near Another star in the
sun vicinity" known as 81 Cygni,
would lie at distance of seven miles.
and the brilliant Sirius would be over
10 miles off. Others must be placed
at distances of 20 miles, so miles, 100
miles. 1t is easy to start with list OF
these figures. 1t is not easy to say |
where one should stop. That the star |
ry system has limits we do not doubt, |
but to define those limits is not posi- |
BILE. On such a scale as is given above |
those limits certainly would not lie |
within a distance of 100 miles nor of |
l, 900 miles.
1t is believed that some dim stars, |
barely to be detected, may be 10000 |
times as far away as our suns nearest |
neighbOr, Alpha Centauri, and this at |
once gives, even on our much reduced |
scale, a line from the center of $4,000 |
miles. Suppose that the limits of the |
stellar system lay somewhere about |
there. Thirty-five thousand miles each |
way from the center would mean q di- |
lmeter for the whole of 10000 miles. \
Imagine starry system 10000 miles |
across from side to side, each inch in
those miles representing 92,O00,OOO of
zeal miles, and somewhere in the midst
IF it our small solar system, just two
Yards across, separated from all other
stars by wide blank of three or four
niles.
That would be stupendous enough.
But we have no reason whatever for
that the limits of our uni
rerse do lie there. The true boundaries
If the stellar system may be twice as
ar, four times as far, ten times as far.
We do not even know with certainty
hat our solar system is placed any
where near it's center, though this
seems rather likely. Far off as the
reaches in one direction, it
nay reach much farther In another di
Journal
Saw n Profit.