The Washington herald., 1911-02-26
SCIENTISTS WATCH
APPROACH OFDEAD
STAR WITH ALARM

that runaway star is plunging earth
ward at the tremendous speed OF 800
miles per second 1t seems to be one Of
the myriads of dead suns that are
thought to drift here and there through
space like derelicts in darkened ocean
No derelict that has swung heavily In
| the warm waters OF the Gulf Stream was
ever more dangerous to glowing port
holed liners than these dark dead suns
are to the bright worlds that continually
dash across their path The dead SUM-
| that the Western observatortes have
| picked up with their new and power
full glasses is one of this numerous and
| perilous class
Simon Newcomb, dean of American as
| ronomers and most famous OF an the
| sky gazers of America. has been dead
only few months He was a man of
most profound knowledge and in no way
| gwen to sounding vain alarms Like all
other students. he realized that the ex-
istence Of the earth could not be infinite,
and less than half a dozen years ago he
| made prophecy. That prophecy had to
do with the destruction of the world In
| his mind there was no dread that the old
world would ever be wiped out OF exist
ence by the sweep of. a comets tan or by
2 gradual cooling of the sun
His prophecy savored of the old and
| orthodox belief that some day the earth
| would burst into flames and these flames
would consume all life, whether ON the
| earth, in the sea, or in the waters be-
meath the earth He prophesied that
| some day, maybe year from now, may
be 1000 years from now. the world would
be destroyed by colliding with run
away star"
Every astronomer knows of the exist
| ence of dead stars great luminarieS
whose incandescent glow has long since
| faded, cold suns that reel endlessly
| around a darkened path
Their fires have long since burned
! themselves out and they are ready for
the next great move in the game of world
building. There are times when some
thing happens in those infinite depths Of
the sky to which no telescope may pierce
Only the feeble spectroscope can give a
faint idea of the cataclysms that may be
taking place in those depths 50 far dis
tant that even light must spend months
! in reaching the earth when it travels
from the seat of disturbance.
Spectroscope Gives Warning.
The little rays that flicker up and down
the ruled and craven lines OF the spec
troscope indicate that the great red star
glowing DULY and evilly from the far-oR
Milky Way is darting earthward with
terrible speed. How far away it is at
present no one knows 1t may be ten
light years distant or it may be a hum
dred. Men have learned many things
about the dark depths. but they have not
learned to measure distance as with a
foot rule. 1t is certain, however, that the
dull star, glowing like a darkened ruby,
is still struggling to emerge from a cloud
Of nebular mist that swirls about it like
fog. But the instruments in our proud
ct OhS frrf ~ hal ynThn cal
upon to set down its distance.
In the meanwhile the sun and its little
flock of planets is drifting steadily to-
ward the great sun Arcturus," said to
be fifty times greater in size than our
own luminary. AS we move the vistas
of the sky open out in front of US and
close in behind u.s. How far we have
moved since the February of 1910 we do
not know; we are certain only that we
are cruising in new fields OF space. Some
where behind US lies the track of fnffnity
that we were plowing through twelve
months ago. 1t is this steady movement
that makes these derelicts Of the sky
constant peril. One of them may be NOV
ing steadily on a path that will bring it
right across the bows of the sun and his
convoy at some future date. The run
away red star hurtling earthward from
the constellation in the Milky Way is
only one of legion of possible dangers
Just now it looms up as the immediate
representative of these dark and danger
Gus strangers in the sky.
"Runaways7 of oIden Days
There have been enough of these sud-
den blazing stars in the history Of as
tronomy to make certain Of the fact OF
their existence. There are many tales OF
great celestial bodies that blazed like a
red torch in the sky for week or a
month and then disappeared as suddenly
as they came. Many astronomers are Of
the opinion that their fierce upfinging Of
light was caused by some tremendous
collision that reduced the colliding bodies
to chaos. The Chinese were the first to
record such wonderful bursts of starry
brightness. Hipparchus saw such blaz-
ing monster in the year 1S4 B. C., and it
led him to the task of making compre-
hensive star catalogue, one Of the first
serious attempts in the study OF astron-
cmy.
Later much later in fact. Tycho Brahe
observed a remarkable object
of the variable and blazing class in the
of the constellation Cassi-
opeia This was in 1572, and the whole
world marveled at the brightness of a
star that could be seen at midday and
which cast a shadow like the sun Still
another shot into view in the beginning
must have been cruising through part
Of space barren of them during the whole
Of the eighteenth century, as none were
Since 1900 the ezrth appears to
have been darting through shoal or
them In 1856 a most remarkable one ap-
peared in the constellation of the North
arn Crown, the Corona Borealis. In 1876
still another famed up in the Swan, Cyg-
nus, and in 1885 the great Nebula, in
Armdromeda, was the scene of one OF
these titanic outburstS Of celestial en-
ergy.
New Worlds Forming.
Later on. it was in the years Of 1891 and
1892, another of these temporary stars, or
new suns Ieaped into prominence In
that part of the heavens occupied by the
of Auriga- Startling changes
are taking place in some of the sky .
iepths at the present time New worlds
are in the process of formation and solar
systems like that made UP of the sun
md the little flock of planets are being
evolved from great chaotic masses of
,wirling gas and spouting, blazing, whirl-
ng incandescent liquids Gigantic PIN
wheels of nebulae are darting and spin
hing through space with a velocity that
$ inconceivable. Even light itself seems
% travel no faster than this squirting.
flowing blaze of gas and seni-gaseous
iquid. Out of one Of these whirling fogs
II world stuff'' the spectroscope shows
he approach of one of these dread run
lway stars" a duh, red world full OF
,minous significance, derehct star,