The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-12-15
THREE NEW STARS
APPEAR; 2ECEDE
ARE DISCOVERED BY ASTRONOM.
ICAL PHOTO PLATE OF CALL
F'ORNIA SCIENTIST.

Berkley, Cal. Dec. 1i.-Three new
born stars. which blazed rtp as result
of collisions or other disasters in two
other fapdsztant SPIRAL ss,itbulas, anrti
then within few months dimfned their
fires until they could no longer be de-
tected by the most powerful telescopes
have been discovered by Heber ~.
Curtis of the Lick observatory of the
University of California. He believes
that it is perhaps twenty million years
since the catastrophes occurred, but so
vastly distinct are the two spiral
nebulae that only now has the light
sent forth completed its journey
through space.
The special Importance of the dis
covery is the evidence given in support
of the belief that each of the spiral
nebulae outside the Milky Way is i'm
itself an enormous universe of stars,
comparable in vastness to the Milky
Way. in which we dwell. That the
Milky Way itself is a vast spiral nebu-
lac is an opinion which is finding in
creased support among astronomers.
Especially significant is the fact that
the three stars just discovered are in
spiral nebulae and not in our own uni
verse. Astronomer Curtis discovery
doubles the number of new stars dis
covered in spiral nebulae, since only
three had previously been recorded, al
though twenty-siX new stars have been
recorded in our own galaxy.
No human eye has seen the three
stars-they We're found by DIR. Curtis
on stellar photographs. Recently he
examined a photograph taken March
20, 1915. with the great Crossley re-
flecting telescope at the Lick observa-
tory. The subject of this photograph
was the nebulae known as n. G.. c.
1927. on the plate he found the image
of star which did not show on a
photograph of the same region taken
two months earlier Examination of a
photograph taken a month later showed
that this new star had grown fainter;
on a photograph taken six weeks later
it was barely perceptible, and then
1t faded from the telescopes photo
graphic eye.
Both of the other stars were found
in the same way by photographs of
spiral nebulae y. G.. c. 1921. The first
of these, Nova \, was first photographs
ed with the Crossley telescope at the
Lick observatory on March II, 1901.
and twice i'm the following month. but
it was not detected until this year and
by that time had long faded from
possibility of photographing. The Sec
ond new star i'm this same spiral nebu'
lac. Nova b. was photographed on
March ,. 1914, but not detected until
this year Several photographs taken
since April 1915. reveal no trace of ii.
The greatest value of the discoveries
is the opportunity they have afforded
Astronomer Curtis to strengthen the
island universe" theory Of the spiral
nebulae This theory is that each of
the spiral nebulae is in itself a col
lection of sums at an almost unthink'
able distance from our own universe.
The new stars just found showed an
average brightness of about the fif-
teenth magnitude. 4 star of the fif-
teenth magnitude in our own galaxy
would be twenty thousand light years
away-that is to say, il would take
twenty thousand years Tor the light 70
come from such a star. although light
travels at the rate OF one hundred and
eighty-six thousand miles a second DIR.
Curtis thinks these new stars may pos
sihly have been OF the thirteenth mag
nitude before their cutburst. and 50 as
Tar as twenty million light years
distant. He points out that the six
new stars discovered in spiral nebulae
are on the average ten magnitudes
fainter. and therefore a hundred times
as far away as the average OF the
.twenty-six new stars which have been
recorded in the Milky Way.