The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1920-12-17
EARTH NOT ALONE
Many UniverseS Besides Our Own
in Space.
Recent Discoveries Have Greatly EN-
panded Mankind's knowledge OF
Astronomy-Now We Know
the "Sun Do Move"

The high priests of Babylonia and
Egypt, 5000 years and more ago, had
q considerable knowledge of astron-
omy; but, leaving out of question the
few thus learned in science, creation
TO the ancients was a three-story af
fair, or rather two stories and a cell
lar, the latter being the abode of the
dead, while on the second floor, orna-
mentally bespangled with stars, dwelt
the gods.
Earth, of course, was fiat The sun
passed across the heavens once in ev-
cry "a hours, and, going under, ap-
peared again in the east next morn
ing There was also the moon, which
had similar habit; and that was
about all there was of the cosmos.
Since then our ideas on the subject
have vastly expanded, and now, In
view of recent discoveries, they seem
destined to expand enormously beyond
anything hitherto imagined. We are
beginning to grasp the notion of 9th
er universes outside of our own-at
distances from our own universe we'll
nigh inconceivable.
Rev. Jasper declared that 'the sun
do move" He was right. Not only
does it revolve on its own axis (as
may be plainly seen by the spots
which travel across its disc), but 1t is
moving In a straight line through
space, like a gigantic projectile. at
OF %
AS it thus moves, the earth and its
sister planets, of course. 90 with it.
Astronomers, in the course of cen
turtles, have actually been able to OBJ
serve this movement, by the closer
gathering of stars in the suns wake
and the widening out of consultations
ahead of us-iust as might be noticed
of trees and houses passed or ap-
preached in railroad train.
All the stars are suns, most of them
much bigger than our own solar lumi-
nary. aud every one of them Is trav-
cling at a terrific speed. The so-called
Runaway Star (known TO astronomers
as 1880 Groombridge) is going at
rate of 200 miles a second. What
| imaginable power could have set all
! these suns in motion? And why are
| they all travelling In different direc-
tions, apparently? Our own seeming
destination Is the constellation Lyra.
1t is now thought probable that our
universe, which we call the Milky
Way 1--WE seem to be not far from the
center of it) is In reality vast spiral
in form, and that this spiral is re
volving, so TO speak, In It's own plane
Assuming this to be true, the straight
line In which our sun appears to tray-
ell is actually q curve.
What has led TO this belief Is OBJ
servation of other spirals which are
now thought to be distant universes,
many of them so far away that light
from them, travelling 10000 miles a
second, takes something like 10000
900 years to reach us. Their form
plainly shows that they are revolving
Everything In the cosmos seems to
go round and round. The moon trav-
els around the earth, the earth around
the sun; and presumably the sun is
following an orbit about some center
whether a giant sun or merely a point
in space. Our universe (if the theory
above outlined be accepted) Is whirl-
ing. Probably, as it whirls, it Is max
ing a journey Of It's own about some
center, perhaps In concert with other
universes.
Space being infinite In extent, 1t is,
when one comes to think Of it, absurd
for us to imagine that ours is the only
universe.
We shall never know. But at least
we may claim that our ideas on the
subject of creation are expanding
Kansas City Star