The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-12-29

/ New Years. 1919 Where are we "at?''
In a cosmic sense we haven't the
slightest idea. But we do know that.
wherever we are, II is more than 3o0.-
100000 miles from where we were just a
/ twevemonth ago.
This is the rate at which the earth on
which we live is dropping through the
void OF space. In fact, the sun and the
whole system OF planets to which we
belong is falling. falling into an indef-
mite abyss at the rate OF ten miles a
| second
| Every minute in 1913 we shall fall 600
| miles Every hour during the twelve
month we shall drop $500 miles into the
/ bottomless gulf Every week in the year
we shall fall 100000 miles.
Ten miles n second Is about twenty
times the ''muzzle velocity of a rifle bull
| let. We have been falling at this rate
| for an incalculable length OF time al
ready. Where. when, and how will the
journey end?
This question represents the greatest
| problem that science at the present time
| is trying to solve. We know that We are
moving. apparently I'm a straight line. in
the direction of the giant sun Vega. in
! the constellation Of the Tyre. Some day
we are bound TO get there.
Merely as New Years problem, IL is
easy to figure the thing out on a scrap
| OF paper. The orbit OF the earth in its
| journey around the sun is of such size
that a railroad train running sixty miles
an hour with never a stop, would take
$50 years to cross it, Represent this orbit
by a lady's finger ring, and ION the same
scale) Vega would be about eight miles
away!
Three hundred millions OF miles seems
an enormous distance. But light, trav-
cling at the rate Of $4,000 miles a second.
could traverse 1t IN less than half an
hour. And the great star Vega is nearly
twenty-five Tight years away from us.
In other words, a ray of light starting
from that giant sun would take almost
twenty-five years to reach the earth.
Thus It appears that making all rea-
sonable allowance for errors Of reckon
ing, the sun and its family of planets
ought to arrive in the neighboThood Of
Vega ~about $4,000 years from now. And
high time, too, for. II the ideas Of GER
tain very eminent astronomers are cor
rect, the earth and its inhabitants by
that date will be in urgent need of
fresh source Of hest-our own solar orb
being already. at this writing, somewhat
decrepit-
sun Burning Out.
Prof T ]. J. See. the foremost Of our
naval astronomers. says that the sun will
begin to run down rapidly after $4,000
years from now, and that, on this ac-
count, mankind Cbarring some such piece
of cosmic good luck) must look forward
with certainty to being wiped out even
tuslly by a steadily increasing cold. The
sun. according TO Prof. See, has already
burned 100000 years, and in about
A - 10 ,,-F1l
The ''cosmic accident however. may
be Of a very different and highly ca
lamitous kind. For. on our way to the
constellation of the Tyre, we may go
smash into something Prof See says
that there are many more dark Il. e.
eXtinguished) suns than bright ones. and
that the heavens are literally filled with
these invisible bodies"
1t is quite certain that such collisions
do occur every now and then. In Feb
ruary, 1900, a catastrophe of the kind
made visible to astronomers lowing to
the resulting conhagration in the sky)
a new star which was listed as Nova
Persei" On the night of February "A it
was the brightest star in the heavens, !
Sirius alone excepted. But six weeks
later its fires had diminished to such an
extent that 1t was hardly visible to the |
naked eye.
As a matter OF fact. the collision thus |
made manifest occurred at least a CEN |
tury before we saw it, Few astronomi- |
cal happenings are more astonishing or |
more instructive. The most remarkable |
celestial collision on record is that which |
set "Tycho's star on fire in 15I2 A. ID. |
1t was so brilliant as to he visible to the |
naked eye in full sunlight, and even to !
this day it still smOldcrs. though 1t can |
be seen only with a good-sized telescope. |
The light by which We see star may |
have started from that star twenty-five |
years ago. Assuming this to be the case. /
1t is twenty-five light years away from ,
us. But ever so many stars are vastly /
farther from us than that. Thus. for ex-
ample, Alcyone, the principal member
Of the constellation of the Pleiades, is
distant from us So light years. Which /
means that the light by which we may
behold this giant sun tonight started on
its way more than a ceptury before CO.
lumbus discovered America. Multiply |
the number Of seconds in So years by