The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1921-07-29

SHE1 physicist of the University
$3 of Chicago.
The human race, which
for thousands of years fondly believed
their little solar system to be the
center of the physical universe, but
later unwillingly revised that opinion
can now be assured that neither the
earth nor the flaming sun itself is
even visible from great stars which
scientists are measuring, and which
are proving to be of prodigious size
Experts, working under Professor
MichelSonS direction, have just com
puted the diameter of Alpha Oribnis,
star in the constellation of Orion,
which, except among astronomers, is
usually called BetelgeuSe. Using the
new invention, they found that Alpha
OrioniS, or Betelgeuse, is 3O0,OW,OOO
miles in diameter, diameter 300 times
as large as that Of the sun. And since
the mass of the sun is about 332OO0
times greater than that of the earth,
the relative sizes of Alpha Orionis and
earth can be seen easily.
Figures like these are hardly to be
grasped by the mind until they have
been put into everyday terms. The
diameter given means that Alpha has
circumference of more than OO,OOO,-
600 miles. A railroad train travelling
without stop at the rate of go miles
an hour would require 15,O00,0O0 hours,
or 625, 900 days, or 1T12 years just tn
go completely around the star. And
computing the life of a generation at
80 years. it would be the fifty-second
generation of the original passengers
on the train who would see the end
of the journey. To be completing the
trip now, ancestors of the present pas
sengerS would have had to start up
on their journey in the year 209 A. u.
Light, which travels at the rate OF
$4,000 miles a second, would require
1889 seconds, or 801a minutes, just to
flash around the staggering bulk OF
Alpha Orionis.
Earth Very Small.
The planet Mars, that familiar red
point in the sky, maintains an average
distance of 141, 100000 miles from the
sun, which means that the entire Or
bit of this planet as it goes hurtling
through space is smaller than the di-
ameter of Alpha Orionis. The Marian
year is 687 days, but even the terrific
speed of Mars would not enable. it
to encircle Alpha within that period.
Compared with the monster stars
being measured by means of Profess
sOr MichelSOn's invention at the Mount
Wilson observatory in California, the
earth is about the size of a nudge.
For certain remote stars are proving
to be much vaster than previously sup
posed. Unless the results of the new
mode of measurement are successful
ly challenged, the astronomers will
have to revise many of their calcula-
lions in regard to the universe of stars.
The perfection of Professor Michel
sons method for ascertaining the eX-
act dimensions of stellar bodies was
announced at a session of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement
VI OClt-IICc, UClu III NhiNdSO IVNChlASs
It has been described as an event of
stupendous Importance in scientific
progress.
The method also has been applied
by q member of the staff at Mount
Wilson observatory in measuring
the star Capella, which has been
known from spectroscopic evidence to
be really a double star, although the
twins are so near each other that they
appear as one, even through the most
powerful telescopes. BY using Profess
sOr Michelson's attachment on the
eight-foot telescope at the observatory,
it was found possible to measure the
minute angle, only .O45 of second,
subtended by the two stars and to de-
termine their successive positions as
they revolved in their orbits. Put In.
to the language of the market place,
it was like measuring the head of a
pin more than 1000 miles away.
A brief description of Professor Mi
chelson's instrument is as follows:
The mirror of an eight-foot telescope |
Is Obscured by an opaque cap with Sits