Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
Stellar System Like
A Swarm of Cnats

PARIS.-The Able TIL. Moreux, di-
rector Of the Observatory Of Bourges.
discussed In o recent article In lie Petit
Journal the interesting problem Of the
movement Of the stars In space. He
said among other things: j.
1.-THE ancient savants-those ut least,
whose names have come down In his
tory-who had at their disposition
neither telescopes nor modern instru-
ments Of measurements, had classified
the stars in two categortes. The first
moved in the celestial vault and were
the wandering stars to which they gave
the name of planets; all the others were
called fixed and were named simply
stars.
This distinction, born Of superficial
examination Of the skies, persisted even
long after the admission Of the rota-
ton of the earth.
"All the world accepted these notions
when in 1904 an astronomer Of Paler-
mo, Father Piazzi, upset received ideas
by announcing that feeble star In the
constellation of the Swan, numbered
81 in the catalogue. moved In the sky
like q vulgar planet. :.
ut was q very great event for that
movement Of its own, it was a good
bet that it was not alone among the
stars in this respect. And If all the
stars moved, goodby to the fxed
points used as q base of calculation
by the astronomers. And then, on re-
Election, one could not see why our sun
was not going to initiate the brother
stars and carry us In his train into
regions unknown.
"They realized all this when Piazzi
announced his discovery, but they were
the fact and the frightful complications
which it was going to introduce into
the study Of the universe. Each OBJ
servatory set to work, and since then We
have discovered that the rule Is general
that all the stars have motions, more
or less important, and that our sun
carries us along in wild course toward
the region in which shines the beautiful
sun which we call Vega.
an a general way the apparent mo-
lions which are most considerable ap-
ply to the stars which are nearest.
"Thus, one Of our neighbors OF the
constellation of Ophinicus, whose light
takes only years to reach us, moves
annually in the sky about 10 seconds OF
an arc. 1t is very little, you viii say,
and the motion is not perceptible to
the eye. But think that this star is
more than 10000 ,000, 900 Of kilo-
meters distant and that 10 seconds, cal
culated on a circle having that dis
lance as a radius, give q displacement
of several hundreds Of millions OF
kilometers.
IF one takes the average Of all the
numbers obtained. one finds that the
stars have q motion of their own Of
between 35 and 40 kilometers Q second.
Our sun is far from attaining that
speed. It carries US along at rate
of 20 kilometers q second, according to
the most recent measurements, which
in a 'snail-like train At this rate we
shall reach the region Of where Vega
gravitates in 436, 900 years. but when we
arrive there, the beautiful star OF the
Tyre will no longer be there. 1t also
will have fed that region and will not
occupy the place In which we see IL
shine.
ION the other hand, these studies
have been pursued for so short time
scribe in space straight line or Q
trajectory more or less incurved. and
even aftay observations through several
centuries our descendants will have all
the difiiculty in the world to settle this
question.
ITO Ak the speed and direction Of our
sun in space we need to observe atten-
lively the movements OF q great number
Of stars. Herschel had solved the prob
lem with data relatively meager. and he
had concluded that we were flying
toward the constellation OF Hercules.
Modern measurements have somewhat
changed our point Of view. but precisely
because we possess too many data 1t has
now become almost impossible to attain
exactitude and we must be content Tor
a long time with approximations.
ITO sum up, we can compare our uni
verse at the present moment to q
swarm Of gnats in perpetual agitation.
or, II we prefer. to very rarefied case
Gus mass in the bosom Of which billions
of molecules whirl. The interval from
one star to another is so formidable
that collisions are extremely rare. Oc-
casionally we note some. Then the con-
Migration starts which devours suns
and planets TIA few hours. Does that
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