The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1916-07-14
SECRETS OF SPACE
What Might Be Revealed if Ma
ture Lifted the Veil.
WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE.

Evidence That What We Call the Uni
verse Is Only Part of Far Grander
and Perhaps Infinite System of Suns
and Worlds and Planets.
Men of science have found reasons
for believing that there may be, far
off in infinite space, other material
systems besides the one visible to us.
We seem to be able with modern tele-
scopes to reach the boundaries or
farthest limits of the stellar system
to which our sun belongs.
1t is found that with increase of dis
tance the relative number OF stars de-
creases until, in most directions at
least, point is reached beyond which
virtually no more stars can be seen.
Then, too, 1t has been found that the
stellar system has a fairly definite
shape-a fact which in itself implies
boundaries. The shape IS that of a
vast spiral, with curving arms sur
rounding a central agglomeration. If
you will imagine floating In the middle
of the room where you sit a roughly
globular swarm of bright particles,
distributed with a fair degree of uni
formity as to distance from one an
other, and then outside of the swarm
surrounding 1t, but separated from it
by space which is nearly but not
quite empty, an irregular spiral ring
Of similar shining particles, you will
have before you picture of one of
the latest astronomical conceptions of
the form of the visible universe
The central swarm will represent the
assemblage of stars of which our sun
is modest member, while the envel-
oping spiral will represent the i'm
mense system of the Milky way, whose
stars are vastly more numerous than
those composing the globular swarm.
The stars OF the Milky way are the
most distant members of the entire
system, which appears to be shut In
ali around by black space. Viewed
from afar off In the ebon depths of
that space, this universe of oms would
resemble q phosphorescent jellyfish,
with family sparkling tentacles, afioat
In the sea of immensity.
This being so, the question naturally
arises, May there net be, or must there
not be, an indefinite number of other
such systems scattered through the
limitless eXpanse of space? That ques-
ton would forever remain matter of
pure conjecture if we did not have GER
tain very suggestive facts which seem
to indicate that it ought to be an
swered In the affirmative
The facts Of which / speak are OBJ
jects Of visual observation. But that
does not necessarily make them parts
Of the visible universe" because they
appear to be unconnected with 1t and
to lie beyond its boundaries.
These objects are known as spiral
nebulae. The photographs that have
been made of them in the past few
years are simply amazing. The forms
Of many are surprisingly like that
which has been described above as
characterizing the stellar system. They
have central agglomerations with en-
veloping spirals. They have knots of
light which recall the globular clusters
of stars found In the visible universe,
but they are so distant that no sepa-
rate stars can be detected In them.
They look like masses of more or less
condensed glowing gas, but the spec
troscope shows that the light coming
from them Is not that which is charac-
teristic of gaseous nebulae, but that
which belongs to true stars. The influ-
ence is that these wonderful objects
may actually be other uniyerses lying
out In the ocean of space beyond our
shores.
This inference is strengthened by
what we know Of the distance of some
of these objects. The utmost diameter
Of the great spiral of the Milky way
probably does not exceed from 1000 to
5000 "parsecs," or from 800 to 1,20o
million times the earth's distance from
the sun. A parsec, which corresponds to
a parallaX Of one second Of arc. equals
about 10000 0O0,00 600 (nineteen tril-
lion) miles. But some of the spiral
nebulae appear to be at least 10000
parsecs distant.
II that is SO there exists between
them and the outer frontiers Of the Wis
fble universe gap far broader than
the entire diameter of that universe. 1t
can hardly be supposed, then, that they
are outlying parts Of or attendants
upon our universe, but 1t is much more
reasonable to conclude that they are
other uniYerses constructed on a simi-
lar plan, but so far away that us view
ed with our utmost visual powers, our
m1Rhtiest telescoDes. they are but