Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-12

~ O you know that above your
head are stars 50 heavy that
pint of their substance
81 would weigh 10 tons, and that
a small size pebble from one
OF these stars would crush the strong
est man if Ii fell on him?
Do you know that if this minute YOU
were to get on a train capable of rush
ing through space at 60 miles an hour,
with the fare rate at cents a mile,
you would have to have five or six
gland operations if you were TO be
able TO Stagger out at the depot of the
sun two centuries later, and in add
ton nearly 100000 for a one-way
ticket without tips? Or that if you
essayed to go Oh to the nearest star
you would have to defy old age to the
extent of 50,000,000 years?
Do you know that overhead Old
Sol is getting along in years. and, like
an ordinary human mortal, is going to
flicker out some day in the not so far
distant future and carry us to the
celestial graveyard, too?
What is even much more important
do you know that there are some
scientists who, having pushed their
telescopes through trillions of miles of
trackleSs waste lands of the heavens,
are convinced that there is a Supreme
Intelligence in the universe-that
death is a very possible illusion, and
that everywhere there is neither a be-
ginning nor an ending?
Life Span of Sun.
spent a whole day in the heavens
with one of the worlds greatest as
tronomers-Dr. Frank Schlesinger.
have often wanted to get a great
A@AE TO foIy I'D
and answer many questions that /
might put to him. And / found DIR.
Schlesinger very obliging. He con-
scented to answer any question that I
asked, provided, of course, they were
not. impossible of solution.
For 80 years DR.. SchleSinger has
been probing the mysteries of the
heavens. He belongs to the old school
OF astronomers who had to get into
astronomy by indirect paths. there be-
ing no cut-and- dried curriculum for
becoming an astronomer in the days
Of his youth. One of our greatest
astronomers was court stenographer,
another photographer. and Schles-
niger was a civil engineer.
DIR. Schlesinger at once aroused my
approaching middle age. / said:
you talk as if the sun had life
span like any ordinary human being"
'It has," replied DR., Schlesinger.
THE sun win die some day just the
same as a human being"
''How old is the sun at PRESENT." !
asked
Old Sol Reaches 1000, 100000.
"About 1000, o00, 900 years old in its
present form. The sun is about half
way in the course of its life. 1t still
has 1000, 900 900 years to run"
How old is the earth?" l inquired.
"a little younger than the sun.
About 1900, 100000 years." he an
0wered
Your remark about believing in a
Superior Intelligence interests me ire
mendously," l said. How do you
arrive at such conclusions, especially
the one that death may be but pass
ing phase in the life of the universe"
Most astronomers are now con-
yinced that the universe is unbounded.
but is not infinite. II you Travelled
trillions OF years off in one direction,
you might finally come back to your
starting point. There may be a SINH
lar cycle with regard to life and death.
Just now. so far as we can see, the
tendency of all things seems to be to-
WARD OeaIn, the universe SeeInS u We
running down. But this may be only
q temporary phase.
"Who knows what unknown forces
may be at work which perhaps many
aeons hence may wind the mechanism
up again? Man with whom we asso-
ciate the idea of life and death has
only been on earth a mere million
years. drop in the ocean of geo.
logic time. But now that astronomers
have finally found out the arrange
ment Of our solar system, they have
uncovered a marvellous harmony. And
we believe that this harmony OF our
little solar system is repeated in other
systems throughout the immense uni