Evening star., 1933-11-17
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

The total interval since the begin
ming of time can have been only about
thousandth as long as orthodox as
tronomers have calculated, Rev. DR..
Georges lie Maitre, noted relativistic
mathematician who is a visiting pro-
fcssor at Catholic University this year,
told the Washington Academy of Sci
enceS last night.
Upon the strange paradox of elapsed
time depends, in large part, his own
conception of a creation still in the
process of expansion from a primeval
atom which contained all things.
Astronomical observations on the So
called island galaxies''-separate star
systems millions of light years away
from the solar system-which have been
made at the Mount Wilson Observa-
tory of the Carnegie Institute of
Washington, he pointed out, show these
systems moving outward at a speed
which increases in proportion to their
distance and proves that the universe
is in the process of expansion. Since
the rate Of movement can be observed,
the rate of expansion can be calculated
and elapsed time obtained. This
amounts to about 2,400.000,000 years.
Decrease With Age.
Now the assumption in the past has
been that the stars Of the Milky Way
galaxy have come about by an evolu
tionary process-that they are born,
grow old and die. They can be ar
ranged according to age sequence. First
are the enormous blue-white bodies of
thinly diffuSed gas. as much as thou
sand times the size of the sun, such as
the great star Betelgeuse in the constel-
lation Orion. 1t is, according to the
old hypothesis, a young star. Then
there are increasing denser and smaller
stars. down to those like the sun. which
Is about at the halfway point. From
this point on the stars become pro-
gressively smaller with greater age.
But, Father LIE Maitre said, the only
evidence for considering this an evolu-
tionary sequence is that it looks like
one and calculations show that it would
have taken at least 10000, 600. .000, 900
years for the universe to have reached
its present status. There hasn't been
that much time.
When he speaks of time, Father lie
Maitre explained. he has no mystical
concept in mind, but only physical time,
which can be exactly measured accord
ing to set standards. There could have
been no physical time at the point
where there were no intervals between
objects and hence no motion. The diff
ficulty in understanding such term as
"the beginning of time" lies in the
ordinary confusion between physical
and subjective time or the sense OF
duration which exists in the mind of
the individual. This, of course. is in
finite. One can always apply the term
before that" or after that" But it
can have no meaning to the physicist
when it means before anything hap
pened"
That the universe is expanding,
Father lie Maitre said is a demon
strable fact. That the stars are under
going an evolutionary process from
giants of low density to dwarfs of high
density, on the other hand, is only an
assumption to fit an appearance. The
assumption and the fact do not fit to-
gether and in such a case the assump-
tion must be discarded Hence, some
other way must be found to account for
the condition of the universe.
Born at Same Time.
He provides 1t with the statement that
they all came into existence at the same
time-the period of the explosion of the
primeval atom-in essentially the same
| form they have at present. He did not
deny that they are undergoing changes
which, in the course of time, might
bring about much the same conditions
postulated by the stellar evolution hy-
pothesis. They are all radiating light
and heat into space They are all con-
tracing under the pull of gravity. As
they radiate they lose part Of their SUBJ
stance and decrease In size. But al
though this process doubtless has been
going on throughout elapsed time, he
insisted. there has not been time enough
to make nuch change from the original
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