Evening star., 1932-12-11
Disclosure Made in Annual
Report of Mt. Wilson
Observatory.
SURVEY AREAS OF SPACE
HITHERTO UNEMPLOYED
Important Solar Studies Described.
Exhibit Open at Carnegie In
stitution Building.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Discovery of approximately 5000 new
''universes" during the year Is announc-
ed by the Carnegie Institution Of Wash
ington in the annual report OF the
Mount Wilson Observatory made public
today.
Each of these is a compact mass oi
stars, comparable in size and numbers
to the Milky Way galaxy, which in
cludes all visible objects in the heavens
and of which the sun with its planets
is an atom-like part. The newly discover.
ed aggregations lie countless billions ol
miles distant in space. SO that they
appear on telescope photographs as
nebulae. Many are in the form OF
spirals, as the Milky Way galaxy itsell
would appear If viewed from far outside
its own limits.
They were found in a survey Of faint
nebulae in hitherto unexplored areas oi
space by DR.. Edwin P. Hubble, whose
work first demonstrated conclusively
that the obscure spiral nebulae actually
were aggregations Of stars comparable
in size to the visible heavens, but whose
sizes and distances staggered the i'm.
agination. Dr. Hubble now is conducting
a systematic Photographic survey Of the
heavens.
Several Clusters Found.
Several clusters of universes have
been found, according to the Mount
Wilson report. They are identified BY
| the consultations of the Milky Way
galaxy in whose general direction they
are located. They are described a.
follows:
A cluster in the direction of the con.
stellation Of the Gemini consisting Of
about $50 nebulae, distant about 80C
billion billions of miles.
A cluster Of 70 found in the direction
Of the constellation Andromeda, al
grouped in the form of giant circle.
A cluster of 300, some Of them quits
constellation Leo.
The faintest cluster Of nebulae yet
found. located in small circle, in the
general direction of the constellation
Coma.
Meanwhile intensive work is being
carried on to solve the strange paradox
Of these nebulae-that the more distant
of them are moving outward in space
at enormous speeds which increase in
proportion to their distance from the
observer. This may lend substance te
the weird mathematical concept Of ar
exploding creation, and was largely
responsible for bringing to Mount VIII
son Profs. Albert Einstein and wilhelm
De Sitter to aid in an explanation.
Studies Of Sun Described.
The speed and direction Of an object
can be measured by the so-called "red
shift" in its spectrum, the position oi
the red lines being altered slightly
This is an important factor in theories
OF an hyperdimensional creation with
space and time possessing qualities be-
yond human Sensory perception and
hence probably beyond the reach Of hui
man imagination, except as expressed in
mathematical folmulae.
Important studies of the sun also are
described In the Mount Wilson report
and are illustrated by exhibits now on
view at the public exhibition open today
and tomorrow at the Carnegie Institu-
ton building here. Observations ex-
tended over period of years indicate
that the suns speed of rotation now is
increasing slightly.
Observations for the last 80 years,
both with the spectroscope and in re-
spect to the movements of Sunspots,
have resulted in the speed Of the suns
rotation being fixed at approximately
2.02 kilometers a second, which would
ACou1t III COlllplcJt IOIdtlOl III zC.l
days. But as far back as 1914 DR..
Charles E. st. John found that the
rotational speed at the equator-the
speed varies at different latitudes on
the suns surface-was slowing up.
This continued, the measurements
showed, until 1923 when a minimum
was reached of 80 kilometers a second.
Cyclic Speedings-up Indicated.
The measurements were continued,
without any effort to interpret the re-
results, until 1928, when they indicated
that the suns speed was increasing
again. This has continued since SO
steadily that the Carnegie astronomers
believe there is no longer any doubt
but that they have found real phe-
nomenon Of solar activity. The speed
now is nearing 2 kilometers second.
Records in the Mount Wilson files show
that measurements in the period 1906
1908 showed a velocity as high as 2.06
kilometerS a second.
Thus the indications are that there
may be cyclic speedings-up and slow
ingsdown of the sun. II SO, there ap-
pears to be no relationship to well
known solar cycles, such as the 11-year
cycle Of sunSpot activity, which Is be-
lieved to have an important bearing on
the earth's weather, or the 22-year cy-
Gle when the magnetic polarities of
the sunspots reverse their signs in the
two hemispheres.
Among the important sun studies re-
ported is that of the so-called solar
prominences," visible to the eye during
total eclipse and which can be studied
with the spectroheliograph used at
Mount Wilson. These are enormous
eruptions of flaming gas from the suns
atmosphere. They were studied by Dr.
Edison Petit of the Mount Wilson staff.
Dr. Petit found that the average solar
prominence can be described as sheet
of incandescent gas about $4,000 kilo-
meters high, 100000 klometers long
and 10000 kilometers thick The total
volume is about 95 times that Of the
earth. The prominence consists prin-
cipally of atoms of hydrogen.
Atoms In Gas Counted.
The sun is 90, 900, 900 miles away. Yet,
as an instance of the marvels of as
tronomy. DR.. Petit has been able ap-
proximately to count the atoms in such
sheet of white-hot gas. He finds about
20, 900, 900 900 900 atoms of hydrogen per
cubic centimeter and a negligible num-
ber of atoms of calcium.
The sun is approaching another sun
spot minimum in the 11-year cycle, the
Mount Wilson observations show. 1t will
ccme next year or the year after. The
last maximum was in 1928. Since then
there has been progressive decline.
While the relationship Is obscure. this
11-year cycle seems to be bound up in
timately with many terrestrial phenom-
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