Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-10-30
THE MYSTERY OF THE SPiRALs.
GETTING One Step Nearer the Ultimate
Secret of Creation.

Wear Inv wear. even month by mohtn'
the star-gazers are increasing .''eii
kno,yledge of the conditions mat eA
ist outside the bounds of our soiai
svstom. Gradually their discoveries
arc heing printed in books and IN the
M :, on zines. and thus the public is en-
lareing it's intellectual concentloh ol
tha universe of universes' that sur
,onnds MS In the current number Oh
the Century Magazine. DR.. EDWARD ~
tbnr Path Of the Mount Wilson Solar
ohservatory in Southern Caillofnia.
gives an interesting survey Oh iecen'
investigations, with particular refer
enee to the enormous spiral ioi ma
lions that hint at the actual plecee'
Of nature in the construction OF tne III
Vulnerable systems that present tleil
luminous mystery on every uheiouueo
night to the patient gaze OF the
tronomer Reviewing the discoveries
that have led up to our present KNOW
edge of these, spirals, DR.. Falh reeaiis
that Nessier. French scientist OF The
eighteenth century, who mad an en-
thusesm for comets, came nlghtIy
upon stray objects in the heaseiis
which had no apparent motion ilNe
comets. but which he catalogaeu ue-
spite his comparative lack OF lil,eIes'
in them. They looked like FAINT teles-
comic comets. but, being stationary,
were of course differentiated from
them. even at that early period OF as
tronomic inquiry
Of these distant objects Messler cat
alogued 1903 1T was the first time
saws DR.. Faith that the nebulae hau
been taken Seriously Later, through
the hors Of the Herschels, father ana
son. over 5000 were catalogued, ana, TO
make a long story short, DIR. Keeler OF
the Lick Observatory estimated doz-
~, wears ago that the total number
must be at least 100000. In june 1901,
he made, moreover, what rs fecosniZeo
as an epochal statement. Most of the
nebulae have a spiral structure re
cent inquiry has demonstrated tpelt
tremendous distance and has inalcateu
their character as individual uniVerses'
if such a term is allowable. DIR. Fath
saws of the Andromeda nebula, lts
distance is not known, but conserva-
tive estimate would place 1t among
the nearer stars If we make TINS as
sumption ii places the nebula at least
To- O00, 900 times as far away as the sun
is from the earth. Consequently It's
real dimensions are at least 4o,0O0,ooo
times those of the sun" Here we reach
figures and conceptions so unthinkapie
that the mind is staggered. But the
writer in the Century goes on to say
that a speetroscopic examination OIL
this Andromeda nebula shows its SIM
ilarity to the sun in composition,
which appears to mean that 1t rs d
vast collection of suns-suns so remote
that no telescope has yet been able TO
distinguish them and the misty mass
that greets the astronomer eye. IN
brief, the assumption then is that the
nebula must be far beyond the stars
which can be seen separately in the
telescope This would make it anoth-
er universe"
There is reason to suppose that the
stars of our own Milky Way. together
with the other stars that greet our
vision, go to form a single system,
and that the formation of this system
is spiral like that of the enormously
distant nebulae. 1T seems" says DR..
Faith. cas- if the story of the spirals Is
the story of the Universe" Thus we
seem to advance one step nearer the
ultimate secret of creation, though
that secret still looms eternally around
and beyond us.-Providence Journal