Evening star., 1935-09-29

uct Of radioactive disintegration pro-
ceeding at an invariable rate, in their
composition. The distance between
about six-tenths of an inch a year.
The estimated time necessary for the
satellite to have attained its present
orbit is about 1000, 100000 years. The
stars and star systems all appear to
be moving outward at enormous
speeds from a common center. Their
present distances show they were all
very close together-perhaps a single
compact mass 900 900 900 ears ago.
At the point In time where all these
roads start there must have occurred
"a very great event" The nature Of
that event is unimaginable. Perhaps
it was an explosion Of the original
atom, whose flying fragments created
space and time in their paths as they
were hurled into nothingness. Per-
| haps 1t was something much less sud-
den and sensational. But it was the
beginning of the cosmos SO far as
man can have any concept Of it. Only
very recently, as the divergent lines
of research have been correlated, did
astronomy begin to realize that the
! solar system and the stellar system
were essentially coaeval.
1T Is from this Every great event"
that DR.. Henry Norris Russell, the
distinguished professor Of astronomy
at Princeton and last years president
Of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, proceeds to
present a new theory of the origin OF
the solar system. For generation
astronomers have held to some form
or other Of the collision theory. Some
other star, it was held. passed close to
the sun. The two stars raised tre-
mendous gravitational tides upon each
other-so great that some of their
material was torn loose and projected
into space to form the planets.
One difficulty with this theory was
that it made the sun and its planets
system practically unique in the
universe. With the present special
distribution and movements Of the
stars the chances against such COL
| lision were enormous. 1t could not
have happened more than four or five
times. Hence there could be, at the
most, only four or five stars with
planetary systems-the only possible
abodes of life.
| But the common age factor, as pre-
sented by DR.. Russell, radically
changes the picture. In the begin
ming the stars must have been much
more tightly assembled than today.
Perhaps they were in haphazard mo-
ton. Head-on smashes must have
been quite frequent. Close approaches
of star to star must have been the
order, not the exception. Hence
many, many stars-perhaps the ma
jority Of them-may have planets, and
these planets may be suitable habita-
tions for living things.
Thus DR.. Russell delivers another
blow at the age-old, obstinate, ego
centric idea of the earth's unique
ness. At the same time he suggests
for the first time another possible,
but not very probable, beginning. The
heavens are full of double stars. At
least tenth of all the bodies in the
sky are systems Of two stars, one
usually much larger than the other.
revolving around each other. 1t may
| be imagined that the sun itself once
had q companion star, much smaller
/ than itself but containing all the
mass of all the planets and their satal-
lites, which moved in a vast orbit
around it. Then. it may be, some
other star hurtling through space
struck this little companion OF the
sun and smashed it into fragments
those fragments being the earth and
, the other planets.
OUCH is the concluding chapter of
~ this volume, based upon series
Of lectures delivered the Winter be-
fore last at the University of Vir-
ginia, in which DR.. Russell tells one
of the most fascinating stories Of mod
ern times. It is the story of the ad-
vances of astronomy in the study OF
the solar system itself, the only part
of the universe of which man ever
Ca. hope to achieve any intimate
knowledge.
1t is a tiny dust speck Of creation.
The sun and its planets constitute
one of about 10000, 600, 900 stars in a
single galaxy. There are a million
or more galaxies. perhaps Of COM
parable size. In the neighborhood Of
the nearest start requires about
five years for light travelling at 10000
miles a second to reach us from this
neighbor-the most powerful telescope
would not give any evidence of the
existence of the largest Of the suns
planets.