The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-02-18
A DIP INTO SPACE
From Our Little Solar System TO
the Far Starry Limits.
SOME MARVELLOUS DISTANCES

The Stellar Universe az We Know II
and What It Means In the Matter of
Miles to Reach Its Boundaries From
the Center of Our Own Sun.
1t is worth while making an effort to
| picture to ourselves the vast extent OF
the starry system in which we reside
Having gained some faint notion OF
| the extent of the lesser solar system.
which occupies 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 92.000.000 miles Of this
distance be represented IN our minds
by single inch. In proportion the
sun itself must he pictured by tiny
ball less than one hundredth part of un
inch in diameter, while our earth
must be II mere speck less than one
ten-thOuSandth of an inch in diameter.
And this little sun and this minute
earth must he 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 off. Uranus will be over
nineteen inches off, Neptune will be
almost thirty inches off Then the So
lar system as Il whole leaving only
out of the question certain comets
which travel farther. will be inclosed
in 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? If the solar system is to be
comprised with hoop not two yards
across how wide a 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 II
the sun is reckOned to be one inch
away from our earth, If Neptune is
reckOned to be less than three feet
away from the sun, then on the same
scale the star which lies closest of all
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 a 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 float
here or there unseen by US, but of
stars radiant with heat and light none
is found in that wide area.
Astronomical writer's sometimes talk
Of stars ''in the vicinity" of the sun.
and this is what is meant by "vicin7
ity." Think of the distances implied.
Our whole solar system is first brought
down into small circle two yards
acrOss-every inch in those yards stand
ing for more than 90.000.000 miles
and then on every side and above and
below is an encompassing void Of
three and q half miles. every inch of
those miles again representing more
than 90,O00,000 miles And then we
come upon one cleaning star. Only
one quite 50 near. Another star in the
suns vicinity" known as 81 Cygni.
would lie at a distance of seven miles.
and the brilliant Sirius would be over
ten miles off. Others must be placed
at distances of twenty miles. fifty
miles. 100 miles 1t is easy to start
with list of these figures. 1t is not
easy to say where one should stop.
That the starry system has limits we
do not doubt. but to define those limits
is not possible. On such a scale as is
given above those limits certainly
would not lie within a distance of 100
miles nor of 1000 miles.
1t is believed that some dim stars,
barely to 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. line from the center of $4,000
miles. Suppose that the limits of the
stellar system lay somewhere about
there. Thirty-iv thousand miles each
way from the center would mean di-
ameter for the whole of 10000 miles.
Imagine starry system 10000 miles
across from side to side. each inch in
those miles representing 92.000,000 Of
real miles, and somewhere in the midst
Of it our small solar system, just two
yards across, separated from all other
stars by wide blank of three or four
miles.
That would be StupendOuS enough.
But we have no reason whatever for
supposing that the limits Of our uni
verse do lie there. The true boundaries
of the stellar system may be twice as
far. four times as far, ten times as far
We do not even know with certainty
that our solar system is placed any.
where near its center, though this
seems rather likely. Far off as the
boundary reaches in one direction, it
may reach much further in another di-
rection.-Chambers' Journal.