Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-06-15
DARK, DEAD STARS
Millions on Millions of Them Are
Flying Through Space.
THE PERlLS OF A COLLISION.
What Would Happen If One Of the Lar
ger OF These Erratio DereIcts Should
Whirl Itself Into Our Solar System.
Tho Birth Of NebuIa.

Tho Birth Of Nebula.
Possibly it has never occurred to
many people that there are such bodies
as dark stars. but so great an authority
as Sir Robert Ball has said that the
dark stars are to the bright for mum
bers as the cold horscshoes in existence
are to the red hot ones. For every such
hot one there must be many hundreds
of cold ones. so that If the smile is
sound the heavens must contain an in
credible number of these derelicts on
the ocean of space. which, having lived
their life, have grown cold and dead.
but are still racing about Mt star speed
until I'm their wanderings they meet
some other heavenly body in terrific
collision.
Such gigantic catastrophe as the
clash Of two suns. each perhaps mil
lions of miles I'm diameter, rushing Mt
each other at the rate Of twenty or
thirty or even more miles per second
would result. so the mathematician
tell us. in world splitting explosion
exactly as If each were composed of
billions of billions of tons of guupow-
der, and as when gunpowder explodes
nothing is left but gas and smoke. 50
I'm the clash of stars nothing would lie
left Of the two great solid bodies which
had collided but an immense whiriing
mass Of incandescent gas called a
nebula. of which, as most people know.
there are quite number dotted over
the heavens This maelstrom Of ras
! would sail about among the stars for
ages. in the course of which it would
naturally cool down and condense into
star system much like our own, with
probably a central sun, planets and
moon.
Some Of these would sooner or later
arrive at 4 condition of temperature
s1Iitable for the support Of life and rs
tpe centuries passed would become
peopIed with sentient beings Grad
| ually they would grow too cold for life
to exist and finally become friSid- cold
| dark stars once more. The number OF
! stars visible TO the naked eye is only
few thousands. With the best tele-
scope and other instruments it is cab
culated we can detect about hun
bred milEions-not large number
there are fifteen times as many peo-
pie as that living on this globe; brrt-
Judging by Sir Robert Balls horse
shoe simile and reckoning only hun
dred dark ones to every bright one we
may take it that there must be at least
1OfO0.UUOOOO dark sturs chasing about
In space. most of which we have never
seen and probably never will see.
I say most Of which. for perhaps 1t
may come as surprise to some that
the earth we live in is Il dark star
So are all the other planets and plane
toids of our solar system. which with
their moons. of which bodies. shining
only by the reflected light of the SUN.
there are at heast 600 known I'D as
tronomers- Nor must we forget to
mention those bodies called shooting
stars which may be seen almost any
clear night If patiently watched for.
These. though they look like stars, are
hardly. as every one knows, to be dig
nified by the name. being mostly but
very small masses of matter flying
! about i'm space. They are quite cold
and dark until they enter our atnos-
phere. which they do at sr,ch speed
as raises them at once to white heat
by friction of their passage through
It. and thus they are revealed to us.
For every one we see there must be
many thousands whose paths miss us
| entirely. ships that pass in the night.
! silently and unknown. Some Of these
are of immense magnitude and are TN
, 3oubtedly regular in their course
Others are doubtless flying abort the
heovens on haphazard paths. md it
| it conceivable that one might come
along and collide with MS or our srrn.
The result of such collision v;1uld
undoubtedly be the end Of this earth
and it's inhabitants.
, II the intruder were of any respecta-
BILE size Il collision With any OF the lar
produce such conhagrltion as wvdld
. raise the temperature OF all the rest
| above the point ut which life as we
know it could exist The earth and
al the inhabitants thereof would be
! burnt up and the elements would melt
with fervent heat" Even If such 4
star did not collide. but merely passed
| through our system, the effect of its
attraction would altogether upset pres
ent conditions and almost certainly
bring about the cessation OF life on the
earth.
Neither can we encourage ourselves
! with the hope that the collision world
be too sudden for MS to know much
about it. No such thing. Our sstrpno-
mers would see the star directly It got
hear enough for the sun To light il up.
probably fifteen or twenty years before
it arrived. according TO its size and
speed, They would be able to ealcu-
! late its path and foretell to few MIN
utes the precise moment of the catas-
trophe, and We should have the added
horror of the anticipation of our slowly
advancing doom, Indeed. the passage
| of even a small star quite outside our
system by many millions of miles
would still have a sufficiently disturb,
ing effect on us to draw us out of our
path and alter entirely our climate and
temperature. -Cha mbers' Journal.
| Cheerfulness and content are great