The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-02-17
SCIENTISTS LOCATE
UNIVERSE'S CENTER
IHUsble Point Is Found To Be Billions of Miles Array and
Most Gigantic Figures Are Necessary To Learn
Distance From Earth.

PHILADELPHIA. Pa.-The center Of
the universe-or at least Of the great
~eilipsoidal system Of which the earth
and Its sun and moon are an eccentric
and altogether insignificant part-has
been found. Anyone who wants to see
ia figures how far away IL is. has only
20 multiply 1888, 600 miles, the distance
light travels per second, by SO to find
the light minute, the result Of sixty
more to find the light hour. by q to
get the day and by $50 TO get the light
yea Then multiply the result OF all
this by $4,000 and. unless parlysis sets
in, the distance viii be shown.
The term light year Is used by
astronomers to calculate the immense
distance OF the universe, because high
er mathematics contains no provisions
for such calculation applicable 10 or
binary terms, From time immemorial
philosophers, astronomers n other
scientists have been specializing on the
problem of whether there is q limit to
the universe. Recently, Prof Eric Doc
little Of the Flower observatory, Uni
versity OF Pennsylvania, expressed the
opinion that II is not limltless and thu
naturally raised the question. what
Is Its boundary"
For the present, that Is unsolved, The
discoveries now made are the work or
pr, Harlow Shapley and were made IN
HAH0tEE OA hiH uNh AtAh bAAtNA NttN ~
the Mount Wilson observatory, Pasa-
dena, Cal. They are made public In
one OF the delayed volumes Of the pro-
ceedings Of the American Philosophical
society OF Philadelphia, the %organtza-
fion which had It's origin in Benjamin
FRnklin's famous Junta Of pre-revo-
lutionary days. Or, Shapley'R article 10
entitled 'Star Clusters and Their Con
tribution to knowledge OF the Uni
verse"
In general II Is n study OF what is
popularly known as the great Hercules
cluster and 10 astronomers, as Messier
~, This, like other huge star clusters
a visible to the unaided eye as faint,
hAay objects" according TO DIR. Shap-
ley, and before the advent of high
power telescopes they we're known TO
astronomers only as starless %nebulosi-
Ties. Perhaps the most astounding
statement made by DIR, Shapley VIII
not be news to astronomers. II merely
brings TO bear upon the science a new
Point OF view that opens more startling
fields TO the imagination than the wild
est dreams OF fiction.
aEven to those Who are accustomed
TO think OF the great depths Of sidereal
SPACE" he says, .it Is difficult 10 com
prehend clearly the remoteness OF the
Hercules cluster. Its distance Is more
than 5000 times that OF the nearest star
new known. Light, travelling with its
hardly conceivable velocity OF 800, 900
kiTometers In a second Of time, requires
eight minutes for the passage from the
sun TO the earth. but 1t must travel
more than 1900. GOO, 600, 600 times as long
to reach us from this globular cluster.
$4,000 Years Mystery.
Silence our knowledge OF the position
and physical characteristics OF Messier
ls does not refer TO the system as IL
now exists Our most recent informR-
ton dates from tho time the light we
now receive left its remote origin in
cluster and what has occurred there
during the last $50 centuries u beyond
our power OF finding out, On the basis
of our knowledge OF the probable
cAuses Of these past conditions, We may
believe with good reason that the clus-
ter Ia now much as 1t was SO, 900 years
ago.
such an interval OF time Is OF small
consequence in the life OF q gigantic
stellar system, but while these pulses
Of light have been coming across the
Intervening fraction of amending space,
q thousand human generations. have
come and gone: man has emerged from
ii vague, unrecorded past. and In fleet
ing succession all this historically
kn0wn national civilizations have slow
" evolved, Haunted in vaunted perma-
Il AtNAfAE AAAA SUPREMACY anu MUMMY AE@
lapsed into oblivion or poor medlocrity.
We recall, too, that OF all the globular
clusters whose radiation Is continually
streaming toward the earth, Messier IL
10 one OF the very nearest
y ~IsM pointed out by DR.. Shapley that
the astronomical name and number Of
thia cluster Is taken from MessieF's
compilation OF 100 bright nebulae and
clusters, and Is family visible to the
unaided eve az a hagy star Of magni-
tude 6.S. about two degrees south of
Eta Hercules. In the Introduction to
this article the astronomer has the
following TO say about the habits of
stars:
Social relationships among stars are
nearly as common al among men and
the lower animals. Sidereal bodies
completely independent Of all star So
cieties are difficult Of conception, for
the heritage OF early and ancestral as
a0ciations, as well as the immediate
environment, influence the present be-
hav1or and the density of stars, Plan
etary systems, binaries, groups of
three or -four nearly equal bodies are
thought to be very common, almost
universal Ii may be; and the assem-
hiage OF stars OF all kinds by the tens,
hundreds and thousands into physically
organized clusters now appears to be
\ property Of fundamental Significance
In stellar Investigations"
The astronomer also shows that In re-
cent years 1t has been found that the
most conspicuous stars OF Orion, Scor-
Pic and the Great Bear considerations
actually form physical stellar systems
or their own. Their stars have motion,
colQrs and distances much in common,
n In each case. he says, they have no
doubt evolved from an origin common
in space and time, A photograph of the
Hercules cluster. taken by Pref. Rit-
chew on a plate of medium rapidly
something like 3d. 900 stellar images