Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-11-24
Star S,Uarns Found IN Nebulae
Prove Them Stellar Uniuerses
Carnegie Institution Observer Confirms Vie,U of
Great Systems Existing Outside
Our O,Un.

Confirmation Of the view that the
spiral nebulae that appear in our
heavens are distant stellar systems,
or island universes," has just been
obtained in some Investigations car
| ried on by DR.. Edwin Hubble with
the powerful telescopes at the Mount
Wilson Observatory of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington.
Some of these nebulae, which ap-
pear through even the most powerful
instruments as whirling clouds, have
been found to be about a million
light years distant from the earth.
meaning that they are now observed
by light which left them in a past
geological age upon the earth.
A brief account of the results of
Or. bubbles Investigations was tele-
graphed to the Washington Office of
the Carnegie Institution from the
Mount Wilson Observatory, at Pasa-
dena, Calf. A part of this message
was made public as follows:
Divergence of Opinion.
THE question Of the nature of the
spiral nebulae is one Of the most in
teresting problems of astronomy and
has led to a marked divergence of
opinion on the part of those who have
studied them. Some astronomers have
believed that they are at enormous
| distances from the earth and consti-
| tute Independent stellar systems, or
island universes,' while others con-
| slider them as objects within our own
stellar universe at distances COM
parable with those of our fainter
stars.
"The number of spiral nebulae Is
very great, amounting to hundreds
| of thousands, and their apparent
sizes range from small objects almost
| star-like in character, to the great
nebulae in Andromeda, which extends
across an angle some three degrees
| in the heavens, about six times the
diameter OF the full moon.
Measured by Brightness.
THE spiral nebulae are much too
small to admit Of the use of the
simple method of triangulation en-
ployed so successfully in the case OF
| the nearer stars. There are, however
| powerful methods available which
depend upon the possibility of deter
| mining directly the true or intrinsic
brightness of stars from the char.
| acteristics of the light which they
send to US.
IF the intrinsic brightness of a
| star is known, 1t Is a very simple
| computation to derive it's distance
| by comparison with its apparent
| brightness in the sky. One of these
methods, and that employed by DIR
Hubble in his investigation of the
| two brightest spiral nebulae, depends
upon the fact that certain stars which
! vary in Hight in a very definite way
are known to show direct relation.
ship between the period of their light
variation and their true or intrinsic
brightness.
'"Fhe method has been used success,
fully by DR.. Shapley of the Harvard
| College observatory, in his studies
Of the distances OF the globular stal
clusters and the Magellanic clouds o,
the Southern hemisphere.
Swarms Of Stars.
1.-THE Investigations OF DR.. Hubbl,
| were made Geographically with the
60-inch and 100-inch refiectors Of
j the Mount Wilson observatory, the ex.
] treme -faintness Of the stars undel
A examination making necessary thu
! use OF these great telescopes Tit