The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-03-16
WHEN The EARTH WILL HAVE NO NIGHT

I
probably not less than a thousand
million of millions of miles.
The first hint of the glories il
store would be furnished by the ap
pearance of the cluster itself. AS tht
earth drew nearer it would expand
until it filled half the armament
with it's splendor. The rest of the
universe would be forgotten and ut
terly disregarded in the indescriba-
Bile glory of that spectacle. On q
dark, clear night we can see about
5000 stars altogether with the max
ed eye. On nearing the Hercules
Cluster we would see $4,000 stars
incomparably brighter than any of
the dozen at present visible to us
of the first magnitude. Their united
light would shed upon us an efful-
gence brighter than that of the full
moon. This would be the beginning
the first hint-of what was COM
ing.
AS the approach continued the
splendor would rapidly increase.
Soon those stars would no longer
be stars but suns in brilliancy.
Would Be Perpetual Light.
1t can be shown automatically
that in the midst of such cluster
perpetual daylight would prevail.
No matter though the earth continu-
ed to turn on it's axis so that the sun
would rise and set alternately, as at
present, yet all sides of it would be
forever Illuminated by the other
suns around it. If humanity could
continue to exist under such condi-
tiOns the whole scheme of life would
be changed When the sun was set
the illumination from the stars
would not be quite as brilliant as
that of full daylight, but still the
sky would be so radiantly resplend-
ent that one would hardly know
which to call day and which night.
1t would be a realization of Bun
vans ideal picture of the city of
the golden streets and pearly gates"
But everything would be in mo-
ton. The change of position of the
multitude of suns surrounding us
would be continually evident. Our
own sun would fall into an orbit of
amazing complexity and with the
earth chasing after it would be now
near the center of the great cluster
where the stars are closely packed
and now on it's outskirts, where they
are relatively scattered so that
the aspect of the heavens would be
undergoing continual changes. The
sky would be a gigantic kaleido-
scope, ceaselessly turning and at ev-
cry movement presenting a new and
more wonderful combination of star
ry splendors.
Might Upset the Earth.
Amid the contending attractions
OF so many suns the earth might be
torn away from the control of it's
own sun and fall under the dominion
OF another, And this could happen
again and again, so that in the
course of time our planet would be
the slave Of gravitation to many
suns in turn. And with every change
of master would come a change of
solar influences acting upon the
globe and the conditions of life
would vary accordingly.
With the aid of a new instrument
known as the Rumford spectrohelio-
graph Philip Fox of the Yerkes OBJ
servatory has secured some inter
esting photographs of solar promi-
nences. In principle the instrument
is a spectrOscope and is attached to
the famous forty-inch Yerkes tele-
scope. The sun is an enormous roar
ing furnace, hotter than any cleo
trlcaI furnace we can construct.
with a temperature greater than any
we can make artificially. The flames
that make up this solar furnace or
d1narily do not leap to great alti-
tudes, but once in a while a tongue
OF fire darts out with an enormous
velocity from the suns edge and
reaches to a hight of hundreds of
thousands of miles. Such an erup-
ton occurred on Nov. 10, 1907, ris-
ing to the terrific hight of $4,000
miles.