Omaha daily bee., 1914-07-25

viewed alternately from opposite sides OF
the earth's orbit, which is about 1885,
OOOOOO miles across, or a thousand times
the distance that light can go in sec
ond This displacement is never large 1
enough 10 be visible except by the most
delicate instrumental measurements. In
the case of the nearest star known II is
equal to less than one 25ooth part Of the
breadth Of the full moon.
When distances represented by such !
slight parallaxes are calculated in miles
the numbers involved become too great
for ready comprehension, because there
is nothing in our earthly experience with
which we can compare them. Hence the
attempts to make them ''realizable'-i. e.,
the space that the light of the stars ira
verses in one year. The standard OF
measurement, or astronomer yaru
stick" thus obtained Is about 5,SOo'ooO'-
900 900 miles long, which involves again
an almost unimaginable number but II
| seems to be the best we can do AT an
rate the employment of this standard
enables US TO reduce the numbers repre-
senting the distances OF the stars TO very
ordinary figures. For instance, the near
est star is about five light-years distant
and from this the measured star distance
(Which are all only approximations) run
up 20 a hundred or more, or with great
uncertainty, to 1000 light-years.
But there is reason TO believe that there
arc hosts OF stars whose distance may be
not only a thousand. but several thousand
ught-years. In other words, they are SO
far away that II one of them should sud
denly be extinguished "a fate that has
sometimes overtRken a starr, the last
rays of light that II has given birth tc
would still be on their way to earth sew
eraI thousand years after the star had
actually ceased to exist
And, contrariWise. II q new star should
suddenly spring into existence In thos'
remote regions its light would require
thousands Of years to reach us, and con
seouently II would be in existence all tina
. length OF time without our being mad'
aware OF the fact by the arrival Of III
, luminous waves through the ether,
This is the old way OF illustrating tn
; enormous distances OF the stars, but Will
, | Il has an imposing effect upon the imagl
nation, Il generally fails 10 produce
very definite result in the understanding
simply because II is based upon the mo
, tion OF the waves OF light. and In every
r day life We have no consciousness OF ths
2 motion. which Is so rapid that it escape
$ our senses.
But since the invention OF wireless teleg
e raphy more striking comparison is at
n fordsd by means Of which we may hel
70 ourselves TO comprehend the distance q
y the stars. This depends upon the spec
5 OF the electric waves which convey III
: radio telegrams through the ether. TIL
q speed there Is every reason 10 bailey
is Identical with that Of l'ght-in othe
words it amounts 70 $4,000 miles per seC
ond. An electric wave, translatable int
Y an Ineligible signal, can cross the A
lAntic ocean in the sixtieth part OF
y second II could go to the moon In lei
e than one and one-thiTd seconds. II II
. speed is exactly that Of light, the. In eI
y tlmatlng star distance We may substitut
- n telegraph year for light year thu
IL to say, instead Of using ths distsn'
that light travels in one year for o'