Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-11-14
Scientific Discussions
by Garrett P. Serviss

The expansion that astronomical
measures, and estimates, of the size
of the visable universe have quite
recently undergone is astounding.
Figures that. few years ago, were
regarded as too staggering for the
unframed imagination to grasp sink
| into insignificance in comparison
with such things as Harlow Shapley' 5
estimate of the distance to the
globnlar star cluster listed as y. q.
c. 1006, a distance that amounts 10
Il parsec is equivalent TO about
nineteen triliions of miles, or, in
| figures, 1900, ,00O, 100000.
One parsec being equal to nino-
teen trillion miles, $1,000 parsecs
must be equal to 1878 quadrillion
miles, or, in figures, 1,273,O00.0 0.000,-
0OO.OOO,OOO. This is the equivalent
| of 21S,000 light years; that is to
say. a\ wave of light. which is the
quire 2lS,o00 years to traverse the
space between the star cluster n.
G.. c. 7O06 and the solar system.
That space is nearly fourteen bill |
lion times the distance of the earth !
from the sun. 1t is fofty thousand
times the distance of the nearest
star, Alpha Centauri. 1t is more
than ten times the distance of the
great gobular star cluster Omega
Centauri, which, by the way, APP
pears TO be the nearest of these
wonderful objects, as y. G.. c. 7006
is the most remote of them. Its
calculated parallaX is 0.000016, OF
Is millionths of n second.
These gobular clusters are all
veEy distant, not only from us but
from one another. 1t is probable
that nearly all the stars compos-
ing them are giants" as com
pared with our sun. The clusters
have the unexplained popularity
of favoring one particular hem
isphere of the heavens with their
presence while seemingly avoiding
I the opposite hemisphere.
The pole of the hemisphere that
contains nearly all the globular
clusters lies in the Milky Way, in
galacic longitude about 500 de-
grees. There those great suns
stand in battalions, drawn up on
their own side of the universe. Some !
of the clusters contain from 10000 |
to 100000 or more stars.
Although they seem to our in |
struments of observation to be close !
ly packed together, yet, in reality. |
enormous spaces separate the indi- |
Vidual stars. Thus. Shapley's estl- |
mate gives to Il cluster known as I
M.S diameter of $50 persecs, or
1850 trillions of miles, which is |
about ia times the distance from |
us of Alpha Centauri, the nearest |
star in the sky. To a powerful telc- I
scope NIB appears as a hazy speck. |
but il we could visit world revolv- |
ing around one of its suns, we should !!
find ourselves surrounded by n stel- |
lar spectacle incomparably grander |
that that presented by the great con- |
stellations that illuminate the night |
sky of the earth. The distance of |
M.3 is $4,000 parsecs That of the |
beautiful group of stars known to
everybody as the Hyades is only |
forty parsecs.
What a journey these figures |
suggest! If we could travel at the |
rate of 1000 miles an hour, so that |
in single day we could circle the
earth, it would take us more than
eishty-four million years to reach
the Hyades. But that would be the
nearest step on the awful road to
M.3. 1t would be like going from
Harlem to the Battery on the way
to cross the Atlantic. To complete
the journey we should have to keep
on, at the same unvarying speed, |
for more than 30,000.0OO years!
Harlow Shapley remarks that the
highest speed of translation hith- |
erto recorded for any celestial Oh
ject is 1,1S0 kilometers (733 miles) |
per second. That is the radial |
velocity of the spiral nebula n. G.. C. |
1924, which travels twice as fast as |
the swiftest known running star"
and yet it would take that flying |
nebula $4,000 years to pass from ten !
the earth to the Hyades. and r.
900 years to reach AI3. But N. |
G. c. 7006 is between four and five
times still more distant than M3.
Perhaps these things would have
surprised Job less than they sur
prise us, for he had heard, and
bowed to the voice of the Lord
speaking out of the whirlwind:
"Canst thou bind the sweet influ-
ences of the Pleiades, or loose the
bands of Orion? Canst thou bring
forth Mazzaroth in his season. or
canst thou guide Arcturus with
his sons? Knowest thou the or
dinances of heaven, canst thou set
She dominion thereof in the |
earth?
These mighty motions and dis
tances that modern astronomy is
gradual disclosing lose something
of their effect upon the mind when
put into numerical figures; the
ideas behind them are more i'm
pres5VeN conveyed by great fig |
ures of speech. for astronomy is
akin to poetry and poetry is the
spirit of wisdom.