The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-08-01

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
lance 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 q
vast spiral. with curying arms sur
rounding central agglomeration. If
you viii imagine floating in the middle
Of the room where you sit roughly
globular swarm of bright particles,
distributed with 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
lHsemblage of stars OF which our sun
is q 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
all around by black space. Viewed
from afar off in the ebOn depths of
that space. this universe of ours would
resemble a phosphorescent jellyflsh.
with family sparkling tentacles, afloat
in the sea of immensely.
This being so, the question naturally
arises, May there not be, or must there
not be, an indefinite number of other
such systems scattered through the
llmitless 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 IL 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
characteri2lng the stellar system. They
| have central agglomeratlons 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 chnrac-
teristic of gaseous nebulae, but that
which belongs to true stars. The influ-
ence Is that these wonderful objects
may actually be other universes 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
6000 ''parsecs," or from 500 to 1000
million times the earth's distance from
the sun. A parsec, which corresponds tC
q parallax of one second Of uric, equals
about 19,o00Co0O 100000 mineteen tril
lion) miles. But some of the splra
nebulae appear to be at least 1900
parsecs distant
II that Is so there exists between
them and the outer frontiers of the Wis
ible universe a gap far broader thar
the entire diameter of that universe. 1
can hardly be supposed, then, that the,
are outlying parts of or attendant
upon our universe, but It Is much NOR
reasonable to conclude that they ar
other universes constructed on n slml
lar plan, but so far away that as view
cd with our utmost visual powers, on
mighticst telescopes, they are bu
cleaning specks! Perhaps the neares
of these strange objects Is the Andron
eda nebula, which. IN n small telC
I scope, looks like faint spindle shape
wisr.-Garrett T.. Servlss in New Yor
Journal