The Port Gibson reveille., 1906-01-25

TELESCOPE SHOWS NO EVIDENCE
or EXISTENCE ELSEWHERE.


tt@1@ 49, ~"ffA~t*
The recent utterances Of the We
erab'e DR.. A. r. Wallace, fellow-dis3
coyerer with Darwin Of the origin OF
species, tending to show that our
earth Is the only body In the known
creation suited for life such as We
find It here upon the globe, has awak-
ened wide interest among progress
sive scientists Il is recognized by
all who Keep up with the thought Of
the age that evolutionists are not 50
sweeping In their claims now as they
were a quarter of century ago. when
the Darwtnia1 theory was new.
pr. Wallace Is now a very old man..
and like Lord Kelvin, he seems to ind
a Providential design in the arrange
ment Of the material universe. II is
perhaps true that the very greatest
and best-bala1cei minds OF all ages
have inclined to such beliefs, and
yet In recent years the progress Of
applied science has been so sweeping
and her voice so omnipotent that
many persons have shared TyndallFs
views of testing the efficacy OF prog
resg by experiment. The difficulty is
that such tests could never be carried
out satisfactorily.
Now, when DR.. Wallace asserts that
our earth is the sole abode Of life
In the universe, a renewed interest
springs up among scientists. One
school claims that he Is old and II
his dotage; the other, that he has. be-
come wise in his old age.
Astronomers can see with great
modern telescope at least 100.000,000
stars in the entire universe. The
question arises. How many other
bodies like our earth exist in space?"
Prof. T. J. J. See, Of the United States
navy claims that the study Of the
double stars rather supports DR.. wal
lace's contention. In 1896, DR.. See
published a work on the orbits OF all
the double stars which could be de-
termined in that time. and he found
the double stars so different from the
solar system that he says no other
system like that to which the earth
belongs is known to exist in the heav-
ems. The double stars reyoIve In or
bits of high eccentricdty,. and the two
members Of a system are usually equal
or comparable In mass; while our
planets move in very circular orbits,
and have masses which are infinitely
small compared to that OF the sun,
about which they revolve. The re-
suit is that our planetary system ar
fords equal conditions Of heat and
light, such as organic life requires,
while the system OF the double stars
would furnish such great changes Of
light and heat that life could not
survive on a planet attached to a
member Of a double. such as Sirius, or
Procyon.
The sun has a mass OF TAG times.
greater than all the planets combined,
and this makes aim an autocrat over
the planets, whose motions he domin-
ates absolutely. The double stars are
In reality systems Of double suns, and
mathematicians claim that a planet
could not move safely and quietly in
such system--that II would sooner
or later come into collision with one
Of the stars, or be driven from the
system never to return, In either case
destroying the chances Of organic life.
The number Of dark bodies In the
heavens is immense, and, OF course,
it is possible that some Of these may
afford conditions suitable for organic
life; but up to this time astronomers
are unable to point to single body
of this kind outside Of our solar sys-
TEN. This in a measure supports the
contention of DR.. Wallace.
Speaking Of dark planets attending
the stars, DR.. See writes in a recent
publication as follows If such In
considerable companions as our sun
possesses attend the fixed stars, they
would neither be visible nor could
they be discovered by any perturba-
tions which they might produce. Il
Is. therefore. impossible TO determine
whether the stellar system includes
such bodies as the planets, and we
are thus unaware Of the existence OF
any other system like our own. On
the other hand, the heavens present
to our consideration an infinite aum-
Der Of, double systems. each Of Wnica
is divided into comparable masses.
These double systems stand In direct
contrast to the planetary system,
where the central body has TAG times
the mass Of all the other bodies com
b.ned.
In binary stars. the mass distrfbu-
ton is essentially double, while In
the solar system it Is essentially sin
gle: whether observation will ever
disclose any other system Of such CON-
plexity. regularity and harmony as
ours is an interesting question for the
future Of Astronomy.
It thus appears that so far as teles-
couic research has yet extended, we
know of no other world suited for life
outside the solar system. For some
reason, our system appears to be alb
solutely unique in the known creation;
but OF course astronomers are too
conservative to say that no other Ike
II will ever be discovered
But they seem to think that our
earth Is very much the best abode for
life ever discovered by astronomers.
Asaru q fho onl& other heavenly body