Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-19


the solar system is an insignificant
part-has led to perhaps the werdeSt
situation ever faced by science.
Stars Moving From Earth.
Following this conference, the great
British astronomer said, a solution Is
beginning to appear. He did not ex-
plain what lines 1t will follow. The
enigma Of the astronomers, Sir James
explained, Is due 10 the indications OF
the Spectroscope that the great cities
OF stars which dct space out to q dis
lance Of ut least "a .000, 900 900 900 900
900 mileS-the fartheSt range OF the
most powerful telescopes at present
are moving away from the earth at an
approximate speed OF 12,500 miles u
second. II this IL actually the case, he
SAID. IT means something like all eX-
ploding creation. Now the Milky Way
system - composed VI at least 100, 000-
QUO, 900 stars comparable " the sun Of
lhrger-ls just one OF the epiral nebulae
which compose creation. 1t must be
moving outward also, II the evidence Of
the SpectroScope Is accepted literally at
its face value.
But, Sir james said. II this actually
Is the case the size Of the universe
fragments OF the exploding shell
would double every l.4OO, 900 900 years
or Whereabouts. During the approXi-
mate age OF creation as calculated by
astronomers 1t must have doubled It's
size many times. II this has been the
case 1t must have been concentrated
in the beginning in o much smaller
space than there r. reason TO believe
Was the case.
Fairly Uniform Distribution.
DR.. bubbles observations, Sir James
said. indicate that the star cities"
have . fairly uniform distribution
through the "a billion billion miles Of
celestial countryside which the tele-
scope has been able to penetrate. II
the spiral nebulae are fairly stationary
he explained, an approximate picture of
creation can be had by imagining q
radius OF one mile on the earth over
which has been scattered 500 tons of
apples. Each apple represents q uni
verse OF billions Of stars concentrated
into q system. This was about the pic
lure accepted by astronomers before the
strange shift Of the lines in the nebu-
lGry spectra was called TO their atten-
ton. The position Of these lines is
considered q practically infallible indi-
cation Of movement and the extent OF
The shift tells astronomers almost the
exact speed and direction Of the move
ment. But, Sir James indicated, in
this case 1t will be necessary to find
another explanation or adopt o radi-
cally different view OF the structure Of
creation.
The British astronomer pictured the
Milky Way galaxy itSelf-fairly typical
Of all the Others-as an almost I'M
imaginably vast rotating cartwheel with
the sun and its planets about one-third
Of the way from the hub 10 the rim
along one Of the spokes. The whole
CartWheel-sun and earth along with 1t
lis rotating ut the rate OF 200 miles q
second or about 5000 times as fast as
Is the flight Of the fastest airplane. But
1t Is 50 incredibly vast that approx.
mately 200, 600, COO years Of rotation at
this speed Is required for a single revo-
luton II the system about Its axis.
Weight Of 2 or 5 BiIliOn Suns.
All the other star cities appear TO be
acting In about the same way and TO be
about the same maguttudes They range
grom the great nebula In Andromeda
which can be seen family with the
naked eye and which Is only approx
mately 800 900 light yeArs--of the dis
lance light travelling at 1856 900 miles
. second would traverse 10 800 900
years--to the celestial metropolises OF
the far frontiers Of space, 100000 900
light years from the earth. Study OF
such a near neighbor as the Andro-
media nebuIa, he said, reveals that 1t has
diameter Of approximately 800 .000,-
000, 900 900 600 900 miles, or $4,000 light
years. 1t can even be weighed by CAL
culated the gravitational attraction of
its center for particles-that is, clusters