The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-12-29
Feels Just the Same to Us, but Without Being
Aware of 1t, We Haze Made a Tremendous
Journey We Shall Reach a Way Station in the
Constellation of the Tyre in $4,000 Years.

I $4,000. and you will have the distance
OF Alcyone in miles from US.
Can Measure Universe.
Until recently nothing was deemed
more hopeIessly beyond the reach OF
human knowledge than the measure
ments of the universe. Yet to-day we
know these measurements. approximate
i, ly, and we are even able to tell the num-
! Der OF stars the universe contains
We know now that the universe has
the shape of disk When we gaze up
ward at the Milky Way. we are looking
through the disk edgewise. and that is
why the stars seem thick. All OF these
stars are blazing suns. The total number
OF them Is not less than 800. 600, O00,eO0 and
not more than 1000 000.O0O.OO0.
The diameter of the disk is about 200
light years Which Is another way of say
ing that a ray of light. starting from one
edge. would reach the opposite edge in
20 centuries. Light travels at the rate of
1S6, 600 miles Il second. Thus a ray Of
light from the sun reaches the earth in
about eight minutes. But, from the 1ig-
ures given. II will be seen that a light
ray which started from one edge OF the
universe on the day Christ was born
would not at this moment have accom-
plished SO much as one-twelfth Of its
journey across.
Our Sun is a rather small star not far
from the center OF the Milky way-that
is to say. of the disk above mentioned.
There are certainly thousands. and prob
ably millions of stars hundreds of times
as big, so that we can hardly consider
our little solar system as cutting very
important figure In the universe.
Attached 10 our sun are eight planets
four big ones and fou~ little ones. We
dwell on one of the little ones, which,
science is strongly inclined to believe.
Is the only one of the eight that Is in
babited. Quite possibly this is a mis-
take But the earth, as we call it, is
scarcely more. relatively speaking, than
s speck OF star dust.
Let US refer this statement to known
facts.
The question used to be-Do other stars
Il. E., other suns than Ours) possess plan
cts Of their own? OF course, the reason
able presumption was that they did,
hut proof was lacking.
This proof has now been supplied.
Some Of the planets belonging to a few
other suns than ours have been spied
out with powerful telescopes, and even
measured. Necessarily. only few very
large ones have been thus described
and a majority of these are more than
100000 times the size Of the earth.
Planets Bigger Than Ours.
Think Of planets as big as. or bigger |
t'sn, our SUM- We have discovered a few !
OF them. figured out their periods of re-
and so forth, but it is only ]
reasonable to suppose that these giant |
Orbs number millions.
Well. then. Notwithstanding the enor-
u
'ur nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri. /
being more than f. II light years away
from us-we are aOIe to learn with
that some OF them at least /
possess attendant planets. The pre-
sumption, at all events. is that most of
them have planetary systems Of their |
1wn. Such of their planets as We are |
with are giants compared |
with our little earth.
Why, then, should We lima CINE that the |
earth is the only inhabited orb Of the |
universe?
Refer the matter to crazy human van
Iy, and let IL go at that
One can easily imagine an ant suppOs-
rs that his own ant hill was the en-
ire world. And yet his vanity would be
sheer modesty compared with a belief on
,ur part that the tiny speck of star dust
N which we dwell was the only peO-
Common sense ought to teach US that
his could not possibly be. But refer |
he question to the decision of cold
FLOODED and dispassionate mathematics.
Suppose that there are only 500. 600 000, 600
suns in the universe-this being. &c
'ording to our best astronomical knowl-
'6ge, a minimum estimate. There must
Ne, in the nature of things. several times
hat many of the minor and dependent
RIBS which We call planets. The chances,
lien, are as thousands of billions to one
hat ours is not the only planet that is
'sopled
In other words. il is a practical GER
ainty that other planets are inhabited:
I'D there is every reason to suppose that
many hilliOns OF them are the abodes
4 living and conscious beings. Natures
avs are the same everywhere, and life
5 certain to exist wherever conditions
'Crmit-in other words, where there is a (
Efficiency of water, and temperatures 4
re neither excessively low nor Excess
lively high. T.
But when we say that other worlds are