Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-10
THE GROWING UNIVERSE.
New knowledge Acquired as to Its
Real Dimensions. 81

|
in scale as the world as has bee1
supposing. Our own sun is stu
youthful, and keeps travelling north
wardly through space at the COM
paratiyely leisurely pace OF twelve
miles per second, or only two thirds
the average speed of stars of its own.
class. The North Star is not really
single star, but triple, consisting OF
4 three suns revolving about common
! centre.
These are some of the recent dis
| coyeries of the Lick Observatory, the
| famous graduate astronomical depart
| ment of the University of California.
| People who learned their astronomy
! twenty years ago, or five years ago.
win have TO change many of their
ideas of the universe in the light OF
| the Lick Observatory's newly achieved
knowledge as to how the heavenly
bodies are born and live and die. NO
where in the world is so much, being
done to alter and expand mans
knowledge of the stellar universe as ON
Mt Hamilton. under the direction OF
DR.. w. w. Campbell, the famous di-
rector of the Lick Observatory.
When DR.. Campbell first came TO the
Lick Observatory, comparatively lew
double stars were known. lie turner
the great 36-inch telescope, then the
largest in the world, upon this prob
lem. and, in the years since then, the
Lick Observatory has discovered over
1000 double stars. BY the eye at the
telescope it was proved that one out of
eighteen stars, on the average, is
double e.tfs 'bz
But next the Lick Observatory
! proved that vast numbers of stars
| which, even TO the most powerful
Telescopes look like one, are really
double, or even triple or quadruple.a
Work with the spectIoscope showed
that at least one star in every four IS
double. The first magnitude star
Capella, for instance consists OF two
stars nearly equal in brightness. which
relieve around their common centre of
mass every 104 days.
Only some $4,000 nebulae have been
observed as yet. but the Lick OBJ
servatory has proved that several
hundred thousand nebulae visible to
the telescope or the camera exist IN
the sky. waiting to be discovered
whenever opportunity can be found to
undertake the work. Most nebulae
have spiral form. This discover
was wholly unexpected 1t proves
their rotation.
Three extra moons have been found
for Jupiter by the Lick Observatory.
the planets sixth, seventh and eighth
satellites having been discovered in
1892 1904 and 1905
Some thirty comets have been dis
covered by the Lick Observatory.
1t has been shown that the principal
new stars" which now and then blaze
up in the heavens. only to fade dim
afterward have been converted into
nebulae. and that the nebular stage
passes later. in the course of many
years, to the ordinary stellar condi
ton, 7sa#
Total eclipses of the sun have been
observed by expeditions sent by the
Lick Observatory to many parts of the
world--to French Guiana, for instance.
to northern California. to Chill. India,
Georgia, Sumatra, Spain and Egypt,
and TO the South Pacific. The Hearst
Expedition to Chill in 1898 and the
Crocker Expedition to India in 1898
recorded for the first time the wonder
full structure of the inner solar
corona and the numerous expeditions
sent out by the generosity of Regent
William II. Croker have established
that the light of the inner coronal
structure is largely inherent, whereas
the light of the outer parts of the
, corona is largely reflected sunlight.
One of the greatest contributions to
cosmology that the Lick Observatory
has made is Director Campbells proof
by spectographic observations that
stars in the earlier stages of their ex
istence are travelling slowly through
space, and that their speeds increase
as they grow older. This fastening
of pace as suns increase in age had not
been suspected, and is highly impor-
tant in Interpretations of the life Of
the universe. fsf3t
Among the problems which the
astronomers of the Lick Observatory
keep always before them, in their task
of pushing toward the frontiers of
human knowledge, are these: What is
he form and what are the dimensions
of the space occupied by our STELLAR
system2 How are the individual mem
bers of the system distributed
throughout that space? What are the
relations of the stars. planets, moons,
nebulea, comets and meteors to each
other, both as classes and as in
dividuals? In accordance with what
laws have these bodies been evolved
from materials in earlier stages of ex-
istence? What has been the history of
the celestial bodies? What are their
present physical conditions? What
has the future in store for them?
Besides the great station on Mt
Hamilton. the university has an OUT
post of the Lick Observatory in South
America. This is the d. O. Mills OBJ
servatory, supported by the generos-
ity of Ogden Mills. 1t is on the sum
nit of Cerro San Cristobal 800 fec.
above the city of Santiago. Chilli
It's thirty inch rejecting tele-
scope and spectographs are devoted
primarily to studies of the motions OF
the fainter stars, to aid in under
standing the motion of the solar sys-,s
tenn and the StrItct,,ra IF tba ctai1ar