The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1906-08-29
THE STARRY SYSTEM
1T IS so VAST THAT IT'S LIMITS ARE
BEYOND COMPUTATION.

tanccS by n Scale Greatly ueduced.
Comparison with our Relatively
Small solar system.
1t is worth while making an effort to
picture % ourselves the vast extent OF
the starry system in which We reside
Having gained some faint notion Of
the extent OF the lesser solar system,
which occupies a 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
SUM- aud let the J2.OOOpOO miles of this
distance DO rr.rpscutcd in our minds
| by a s.u-lc inch. In proportion the sun
itself mist be pictured 10y q tiny ball
less than one huuarcdth part Of an
inch IN dilmetc". while our earth must
bc a mere spccN, less than one ten
thousaudth of an inch in diameter.
Aud thiS iittlr sun and lhis minute
earth must be just an inch aSuuder.
! 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 live inches Off. Saturn will be
! ten inches Of. Uranus will be over
nineteen inches off, Neptune will be
| almost thirty inches of. Then the So
lar system as n whole. leaving only out
of the question certain comets which
| travel farther, will be incloScd In cir
Gle less than two yards in diameter.
| The question arises next. What will
be the proportionate size Of the stellar
system on this same scale of measure
ment? II the solar system is To be
comprised with 4 hoop not two yards
across. how wide space should we
allow TO the surrounding system OF
stars, "our uuivcrsct" How near VIII
be the nearest of outlying stars? And
| the answer is sufficiently startling. If
| the sun is rCckoncd to be one inch
away from our earth, ii Neptune is
/ Ircckuucd TO Doe less than three feet
AWAY from the SUM- then. ON the same
scale d." star Whirh lies closest of an
outer stars iu the whole universe 10 us.
| Alpha Coutauri ly name. must he
rccknuCd as lying gt distance OF
about three and "a half miles. And be-
tween the two-nothUg: at least moth
| ing in the shape of "a star. IN ocCI-
/ ,ioual comet may ag slowly along in
/ The darkness. finding IT'S way from one
sun system tJ another, and dark bod
/ les, cooled suns, may possibly float here
or there unseen by MS, but of stars.
radiant with heat and light, none Is
found in that wide area.
! Astronomical writers sometimes talk
of stars "iu 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
ncroSs-cvory inch in those yards stand
! Ing for more than gOOOOOOO milcS-aud
then ON every side and above and be-
| low is an cncompaSSinc void of three
ANA a half miles. every inch Of those
miles again representing more than
! gj.uOO,UJU miles. And then we come
| upon one cleaning star Only one
! quite SO near. Another star in the
SUMS vicinity known rs G1 Cycui.
| would lie at n distance of seven miles.
and the brilliant Sirius would be over
| 10 miles Off Others must be placed
at distances of 20 miles 30 miles, 100
miles II is easy TO start with Il 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-
| bic. On such scale as Is given above
| . tt,.I.
within distance of 100 miles nor of
! 1000 miles.
1t is believed that some dim stars.
| barely to be detected. may be 10000
times as TAR away rs our suns nearest
! neighbor. Alpha Centaurl. 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 tho
stellar system lay somewhere about
| there. 1hirty-tiyc thousand miles each
way from the center would mean di-
! amctrr for the whole of 10000 miles.
! Imagine a starry system 10000 miles
across from side TO side, each inch in
| those miles representing 92,O0OOOO OF
real miles, ana somewhere in the midst
OF it our small solar system, just two
yards across, separated from all other
! stars 10y wide blank of three or four
! miles.
That would be StupcndOus enough.
But we have no reason whatever tor
supposiug that the limits of our uni
verse 90 lio there. The true boundaries
OF the stellar system may De twice as
| far, four times as far, ten times as far,