The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1913-10-15
Regarding This Big Uni
verse OF Ours.
ITS DIAMETER IS NOW FIXED
At E, 1874. 961, $50, 00O..
900 MileS-Number Of
Stars Astounding.
DEPTHS OF SPACE BOUNDLEss

The boundaries of the universe
have been discovered, according to a
report received at the National OBJ
servatory from Prof. r. T. A. Innes,
Director of the Union Observatory
at johannesburg, South Africa. The
announcement is regarded with in
terest by astronomers all over the
world
The universe, Prof. lines asserts,
is contained within the space grid
led by the Milky Way. and he figures
that the most distant star in that
wonderful girdle is $40 light years
distant from the earth. Inasmuch
as the planetary system. of which
the earth is a member. is commonly
supposed by astronomers to be close
to the center of the area embraced
within the Milky Way, and mas
much as light travels 10000 miles
a second, or over five and three quar-
tiers quadrillion miles a year, the
diameter Of the universe, by Prof.
Innes's calculation, is 1884, 961,-
6SO,OO0,0O0 miles. This is the dis
lance light would travel in 1880
years. A ray of light takes 16 min
utes and &c seconds to travel the
diameter of the earth's orbit.
The so-called ''helium stars" the
johannesburg astronomer AYERS, are
the most distant of all stars from
the earth. The helium stars are pc
culiar to the Milky Way.
Is there anything outside the UNI
iverse? On this point Prof. lnnis
does not venture a positive opinion,
but he says that the most powerful
telescopes penetrate far into space,
beyond the boundaries of the uni
nothing. In par
ticular, he says, there is absolutely
no sign of other universes of SINH
larly constituted stellar systems
He looked out beyond the uni
verse--the air in South Africa is
very clear-but his telescope discov-
cred in those far-away depths of
space none of those vague clouds
called "nebulae," which some as
tronomers suppose to be star-sys-
TENS in process of formation. Many
of these nebulae are spiral-looking.
and the conjecture is that they are
whirling around and around, con-
densing themselves into solid globes,
on which life may later appear.
The number of stars, according
to Prof. lines. is limited, falling far
short of the number of people on the
earth. He estimates the mass of the
universe as equal to 900 times
the mass of the sun. That is to say,
the combined mass of all the globes.
big and little. in the universe is as
heavy as AL 900 suns. OF stars 100
times as massive as the sun there
are 800; of stars o times as mas
sive as the sun there are 5000; of
stars equal in mass to the sun there
are 100000, and of stars smaller
than the sun there are 100000,
100000 of which are one-tenth
the mass of the sun, 100000 are
one-hundredth of the suns mass,
and 100000 are one one-thous-
andth of the suns mass. There are,
besides, small stars in scattered
clusters equal in the aggregate to
900 times the suns mass,
1t is probable that a majority of
the stars, he adds, have greater
surface brilliancy than the sun.
Thus, as in the solar system, nearly
all the mass is contained in few
bodies. the large majority contrib
uting but slightly to the total. The
stars are well mixed as to sizes,
small stars occurring where there
are large ones, and large stars being
found where small stars are numer-
Gus.
Prof. Innes's other conclusions
are that there is no serious absorb
lion OF light in space, that il is un-
proved that the sun and stars rad
ate into empty space. and that the
existence of dark" suns is quite
Without demonstration. not one be-
ng certainly Washington
,or. New York World.