Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-02

generation. and it has been predicted that
series of photographs made of them
changes, at least within lifetime.
Will Learn How Stars Are Made.
From a nebula our sun became, through
condensation, aNstar like many of those
in the constellation of Orion, which have
advanced little beyond the condition of
nebulae- Then 1t became white star
ike sirius, and was still but slightly
condensed. From this form 1t became the
yellow star which it now is. But now
the process of decline has set in in our
sun, and the beginnings of its last stage
are family visible Next 1t will become
stars. and finally its light will go out,
and it will float about in the heavens as
black body.
This is the accepted chain of stellar
which the new telescope will give as
tronomers into celestial fields hitherto
invisible and unknown will altogether
upset theories of stellar evolution. Prof
Langley's great invention, the bolometer
when attached to the new telescope will.
some astronomers. predict. be capable of
actually comparing the temperature Of
the stars, whose heat determines their
age and their progress in the course Of
evolution. 5
The powerful spectroscopes which can
De attached to such tremendous tele-
scope will measure the chemical elements
OF many stars, will determine their physical
conditions and their motions, and will prob
ably show, beyond question, whether as
now suspected. the red stars have great
numbers of spots like those on our sun:
If this is proved it will follow that as the
sun grows colder and advances toward the
condition of the red stars it's spots will
multiply.
Magnetic Storms Sound Alarm.
Sun spots themselves are to be closely
studied with the horizontal snow tele-
scope. The true cause of their darkness
| is not yet understood 1t is even uncer-
tain whether they are cavities or elevated
regions. But 1t is known that every eleven
years they reach period when they are
most numerous. This period falls next in
1916. AS they increase in number all other
phenomena on the sun seem to vary in
sympathy with them. Among these are
magnetic storms on EARTH special in
i-strument devised for the detection of mag
netic storms has been installed on Mt. Will
son. AS soon as storm of marked in
| tensity sets in this device rings an electric
alarm, >whereupon special photographs of
the sun made, with the hope of de-
tecting the central cause of the disturb
6nce.
Thus is the future of the sun and it's de-
pendent earth to be read in the horoscope
of the stars. OF course, the changes Of
any one star, including sun, are so
slow that thousands of years might be re-
Quired to detect them. But, fortunately
all stages of sun growth are to be plainly
seen in the heavens with such a powerful
telescope as that projected
1T is as though one were to pass through
oak forest and seek to learn the de-
velopment of the trees" says Prof. George
E. Hale. who resigned as director of the
great Yerkes observatory to assume charge
of this new one on Mt. Wilson. During
the period of his stay in the forest no APP
parent change would occur. But he would
have before him trees of the same species
in every stage of growth: the acorn, the
sapling, the oak in its prime. and the dying
tree representing the last stage in the evo-
lutonal process. BY observing these the
evolution of single tree could be under
stood. Thus, in the stars, while their
changes are too slow to be observed a
similar opportunity exists of tracing their
life history"
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS