Evening star., 1928-12-29
LIGHT LIMITS FIXED
|. TO OWN UNIVERSE
Spiral NebuIa Near Milky
Way Observed by Ca|ifor-
mia Astronomer.
BY the Associated Press.


NEW YORK, December ga dis
covery interpreted as meaning that
limitless space has some sort of limits
was announced yesterday before the
American Astronomical Society, meeting
with the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
Light, 1t was suggested, travels in a
CLOSED universe and not on and on
indefinitely This new concept Is a de-
velopment of the Einstein theory Of
relativity.
The discovery which brought out the
startling concept was made with the
fiector at Mount Wilson Observatory
in California, and was announced In q
paper sent in by DR.. Walter S. Adams,
director of the observatory.
"A few weeks ago." DR.. Adams wrote.
"A small spiral nebula near one of the
poles of the Milky Way was observed
with the 100-inch reflector on Mount
Wilson. It is very faint, and part OF
one of the most distant objects within
range of present telescopes. Tt was
found to be moving away from the
earth at the amazing rate Of nearly
2,500 miles per second, nearly double
the velocity of any cosmical object SO
far observed"
DR.. Adams was not present. but when
his paper was read the story OF its
significance broke" In comments by
other astronomers. The question they
asked was:
Is this speed real or is it something
else?
Mysterious Something Else.
For DR.. Adams figures ! greed with
what had been expected - the seem
ing speed of so distant an object. IT
this is not real speed, but the mysteri-
Gus something else" that has been
puzzling astronomers, it is explained as
the CLOSED universe" That Is to say.
If a person could start out to travel, like
light, through space, he would find
himself proceeding much as II on the
surface of the earth, SO that he would
come back ultimately to his starting
point. The nature of this light bending
is not fully understood, but the dis
covery is hailed as Of great significance.
DR.. Harlow Shapley director OF Har-
ward Observatory, explained this theory
"The measured velocity Of 2,500 miles
a second is, believe, not measure OF
actual motion, but more probably a
measure of 'crumpling of space'--a
relativity effect.
This faint spiral nebula, or outside
galaxy, is the remotest object for which
measures have been attempted. One OF
the deductions from the general theory
of relativity is that the space-time uni
verse is finite but unbounded' and that
very distant objects should show a spu-
rious velocity of recession"
Harvard Figures Given.
DR.. Shapley then referred to meas
urements made at Harvard on nearer
nebulae to illustrate how their lower
velocities fitted with the Mount Wilson
discovery of higher speed Of the nebula
that Is farther away.
The galaxieS (star clusters) OF the
Comavirgo group, which are 10000 900
light years distant Ca light year Is the
distance light travels In one year at
10000 miles a second, appear to show
this pSeudo-velocity to the amount OF
several hundred miles a second The
object now measured at Mount Wilson
is probably 5 or 10 times as distant
and seems to show decisively the rela-
tivity effect of CLOSED" universe.
The new information about the &C.
ton Of light came as an unexpected
part of the program of physics day"
of the association. which was finished
tonight with a talk by DR.. Arthur
Compton of the University Of Chicago
on '"Wnat Is LiQht?"