Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-01-30
A Dip into SPACE
From Our Little Solar System to
the Far Starry Limits.

1t is worth while making an e1orI 10
picture to ourselves the vast extent o.
the starry system in which we reside.
Having gained some faint notion OF
the extent OF the lesser solar system
which occupies n small corner of the
stellar system, we must work outward
from that beginning. Let Us take for
our unit OF measurement the space
which separates the earth from the
sun and let the 81 100000 miles of this
distance be represented in our minds
by a single inch. In proportion the
sun itself must be pictured by tiny
ball less than one hundredth part of an
inch in diameter, while our earth
must be a mere speck less than one
ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter.
And Gais little sun and this minute
earth h,hst be just an inch asunder.
Following out the same idea, Mer
curry and Venus, being closer to the
sun than we are. have to be less than
an inch away from him, while Jupiter
will be FIVE inches off, Saturn will be
ten inches of, Uranus will be over
nineteen inches off. Neptune will be
almost thirty inches of. Then the So
lar system as a whole, leaving only
out of the question certain comets
which travel farther, will be inclosed
I'm circle less than two yards in diam.
eter.
The question arises next, What will
be the proportionate size of the stellar
system on this same scale of measure
ment? II the solar system is to be
comprised with a hoop not two yards
across how wide n space should we
allow to the surrounding system Of
stars. "our universe?' How near will
be the nearest of outlying stars? And
the answer Is sufficiently startling. If
the sun is reckoned TO be one inch
away from our earth. Il Neptune is
reckoned to be less than three feet
away from the sun, then on the same
scale the star which lies closest of al
outer stars in the whole universe to us.
Alpha Centauri by name. must be
reckoned as lying at a distance OF
about three and a half miles. And be
tween the two-nothing: at least moth
ing in the shape of star. An occa
sional comet may lag slowly along IN
the darkness. finding its way from one
sun system TO another. and dark bod
les, cooled suns, may possibly fioat
stars radiant with heat and light none
Is found in that wide area
Astronomical writers Sometimes talk
OF stars Gin the vicinity" Of the sun.
and this is what is meant by "vicin.
ity." Think of the distances Implied |
Our whole solar system is first brought |
down into a small circle two yards |
across-every inch in those yards stand |
ftser M
and then on every side and above and |
below is an encompassing void of |
three and a half miles. every inch or |
those miles again representing more |
than 100000 miles. And then we |
come upon one cleaning star. Only |
pne quite so near. Another star in the
suns vicinity" known as 81 Cygni.
would lie at n distance OF seven miles.
and the brilliant Sirius would he over
ten miles or. Others must be placed
at distances of twenty miles. City |
miles. 100 miles. II is easy to start
with list OF these figures. II is not
easy 10 say where one should stop
That tue starry system has limits we
do not doubt. bun 10 define those limits
IL not possible. On such n scale as Is
given above those limits certainly
would not lie within n distance of 100
miles nor Of loo miles.
Ii is believed that some dim stars.
barely 10 be detected may be 10000
times as far away as our suns nearest
neighbor. Alpha Centauri. and this at
once gives. even On our much reduced
scale. a line from tile center OF sc. 900
miles Suppose that the limits OF tho
stellar system lay somewhere about