Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-05-05
NATURE AND ORIGIN
OF THE MILKY WAY
RESULTS OF ASTRONOMICAL IN
vEsTIeATIoN BY PRoFEs-
soR G. c. coMsTocK.
EXPLAINS NEW CONCEPTION o.
VISIBLE UNIVERSE IN
STRIKING MANNER.

Washington, D. c., April 2S-T1ar
a group of stars with our sun near
the center is moving through space
after the manner of a snow plough.
throwing out the cosmic dust on both
sides, and producing a thin but wide
~ extended rift of clear space
through which We look to greater dis
tances and command a view OF more
stars than is possible elsewhere, vas
the interesting explanation of the
milky way, given by Professor George
c. Comstock, director of washburn
observatory at the University of Wis
consin, in paper on The Nature and
Possible Origin of the Milky Way,
read yesterday before the National
Academy of Sciences.
He said in part:
Our knowledge of stars has been
greatly increased during the past 20
years and the substance of that know
ledge may be summarized in the fol-
lowing new concept of the visible uni
verse.
Many millions of stars and suns
are irregularly scattered throughout
an apparently limitless space, ana
among these stars meteoric particles
drift aimlessly about, constituting a
cloud of cosmic dust that very sparse
ly fills the celestial spaces. This
star and dust filled space may fairly
be termed without form and void but
here and there may be found auge
clusters of stars, such as the Magel-
lanic clouds and the great nebula In
Andromeda that show more traces OF
organization, and whose memoirs
cling together and move as a group
through the outside chaos.
The sun is a member and placed
near the center of such a cluster
which Is shaped something like a
grindstone, broad but relatively thin,
j ~. .'&..n moves edgewise through
the outside chaos. In accordance
with familiar dynamical principles,
this moving star cluster acts after
the fashion of snow plough throw
ing out the cosmic dust on both sides
and producing a thin but widely ex-
tended rift of clear space trough
which we look to greater distances
and command a view of more stars
than is possible elsewhere. This rift.
rich in stars is the milky way, while
the intensified dust cloud above and
below constitutes the nebulae which
are well known to occur with increas-
ing frequency far from the line Of
the milky way.
This Interpretation OF the milky
way as the product of moving cloud
of stars is tested by appeal to many
collateral facts, such as the character
lstics presented by double stars, the
relative number Of bright and faint
stars, of different classes, the rate at
which the stars appear to be moving
in different parts of tbs sky, the
phenomena presented by comets and
meteors, and also by certain wen
ma'ked details of structure in the
milky way itself. At no point is any
serious conflict found, and in num-
Der of instances facts otherwise an
explained prove to be simple and d.
rect consequences of the fundamental
view advanced. In striking agree
ment with this view are the conclu-
sions of three European astronomers
who, working Independently, have
shown from the observed motions OF
many stars. that these bodies must
belong to two different sets, one Of
which is In motion relative to the otn-
er, and who have determined the d.
rection of that motion 70 be just what
is here assumed"