Evening star., 1936-12-12
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science PROGRESS in Field.
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Is Creation a midget or a eiante

Is Creation midget or q giant?
1t may be an unbelievably tiny con-
glomeration of few billions of billions
of billions of stars with a radius of
only 3 900 900, 900 900 0O0, 900 900 miles.
1t may be SO big that this is only a
relatively microscopic particle of the
whole.
The two alternatives were presented
by DR.. Edwin P. Hubble, astronomer of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
in lectures delivered last week at Oxford
University.
The terms little" and "big." of course,
have no actual meaning in describing
the universe. Whatever its size, it is all
there is. BY definition, there can be
nothing with which to compare it. The
alternatives come from DR.. Hubble
latest studies of the red shift" in the
spectra of nebulae, which has been the
outstanding puzzle of nature since its
discovery by Carnegie Institution astron-
omers about eight years ago.
Until dozen years ago man knew
OF nothing outside his own system Of a
few millions of millions of stars of which
the sun with its planets Is q part-the
so-called Milky Way system Presumably
empty space extended beyond it forever
and ever. Then DR.. Hubble himself made
the astounding discovery that there were
other systems of comparable size lying
across such vast reaches of emptiness
beyond the outmost bounds of the Milky
Way system that 1t took light, moving at
$4,000 miles q second, million years
to cross
Shortly more and more Of these ex-
ternal nebulae and families of nebulae
began to be discovered, until it became
probable that there were untold millions
OF them-that all the millions of stars
IN the visible heavens constituted but
particle of the universe as whole
Nature was millions-fold vaster than the
mind of man had imagined
Then came the discovery Of the "red
shift" This was q displacement of the
lines In the spectra of these nebulae,
which appeared greater and greater the
greater the distance away. This would
be the effect to be expected in the spec
trum Of luminous object moving away
from the observer. Such was the most
logical explanation, however fantastic. It
meant that the farthest nebulae which
could be reached through the Mount
wilson telescope were moving outward
with . speed about q seventh that of
light itself, and that the farther they
went the faster they moved
Now. DR.. Hubble said in his Oxford lee
ture, the latest observations indicate that
the nebulae thin out slightly in all diree-
tions with increasing distance from the
observer. This. It is likely, is only appar-
ent That the thinning out is real is
highly improbable. It can be explained
In two ways. One calls for the substi-
tuition for the three -dimensional space
appreciable to the senses the curved,
hyperdimensional space of the theory Of
relatiyity. If this explanation is accepted,
Dr.. Hubble said, it calls in turn for
acceptance of the exploding atom"
theory Of the universe proposed by the
Belgian physicist, Fr. Lemaitre, who
taught at Catholic University here three
years ago.
This theory assumed that q relatively
few billions Of years ago everything In
the universe was packed into q single
block of matter which became unstable
and "blew- up." It's fragments-the stars
and systems Of stars-are still flying out
ward. Now Dr. Hubble's observations on
the distribution of the nebulae indicate
the expansion Of the expanding uni.
verse" resulting from this explosion is
beginning to slow upA