The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

| from the sun, mean distance. while Jupi-
ter is AIS, 600 distant therefrom 1t is
Jupiters scant elliptic that saves him to
our planetary family; II his orbit We're
| as eccentric as the earth's, being SO far
away from the sun at aphelion he might
| dart off into some other system and never
come back. Some other center of gravity
would seize him, carry him away into
space and he would be lost to us. | am
glad that his orbit is not as the earth s,
! for I should mourn the loss of our big
| brother.
There are two members of our planetry
group with which we are not intimately
acquainted. They keep to themselves.
One of them is Uranus. Uranus selfish
ly sulks in the heavens at mean dis
lance of 1854 600, 600 miles from the sun. We
can detect only four moons attending this
planet, but | am satisfied that others
could be found If we had telescope of
greater power than those we now have.
But farther away still. is Neptune
How vast his orbit, He revolves around
the sun at a mean distance of 5000 900
miles Some day, / fancy great star
of inconcevable proportions will come
near enough to steal Neptune and make
off with him. for such thing as a steller
free booter is quite possible. year on
Neptune is equal to 1865 years on the
earth. Therefore, a lady who is IS years
old on Neptune would be 5775 years OF
age on the earth. II you have any lady
| friends on Neptune you should write TO
| them that 1t Is best to remain where
they are, for even lady would not be
very young at 5775 summers among us.
STRANGE FACTS.
The consultations are star-groups SEEM
ingly travelling together in family parties
across the heavens. | say they are
Seemingly travelling together. But this
is only an apparent fact, for many of
| these stars that seem so near to one
another are in reality billions of miles
apart Our distance from them causes
the seeming nearness. Distance, too;
renders it impossible for us to see the
satellites of the stars, they being so much
smaller than their centers of gravitation.
See the splendid constellation Pleiades.
| AS 1t moves across the heavens 1t seems
to be composed of morning mist, or a
gauze-like network studded with dimly
| shining beads of gold 1t pulsates and
trembles as 1t floats forever onward
through soundless sapphire space. But
| turn the penetrating eye of the telescope
upon the Pleiades and instantly 1t breaks
| up into many distinct stars whose num-
Der runs up into the thousands, some
faint. otherghrilIiant. Many of them are
millions and millions of miles apart. The
light of the Plelades travelling at the
rate of $4,000 miles a second, requires
about 1000 years to reach the earth. That
is TO say, that a beam of light from the
pleiades reaching the earth today, began
its Journey in the year 1910, and If the
constellation were destroyed today, we
should not know of 1t until the year
2Gi0 Alcyone, the central star in the
Pleiades, is equal in light to 1900 suns
| like ours.
Many sidereal worlds that seem to us
to be but single stars are In reality
double, duadruple. sextuple and so on.
The star in the handle of the "Dipper''
nearest the bowl, is double star. Very
near to Vega there is star of the quad
ripple order, four stars apparently SO