Evening star., 1938-12-11
By THOMAS r. HENRY,

BY THOMAS X. HENRY.
First glimpses into the black cur
tain of star dust in the Southern
sky that hides the center of the
milky way galaxy were reported by
astronomers of the Carnegie In
stitution of Washington yesterday.
Around this hidden hub the sun
and all the other $4,000 ,OOO, 900 or
more stars making up the galaxy
whirl in complex patterns so that
the whole system, viewed from some
far point in space, would look like
a gigantic pin-wheel.
From this part of the universe
there is a great chasm of darkness
in the direction of the Scorpio
constellation, where the center Is
found to be from mathematical
computations. It is due to q vast
area, many light years in thickness,
of interstellar dust with particles
probably ranging in size from the
tiniest specks to great boulderS. In
this chasm the light from the stars
around the galactic center is
trapped.
New Photographic Methed.
DR.. Walter Baade of the stan Of
the Mount Wilson Observatory has
been concentrating on this nucleus
region with direct photographs on
high speed plates sensitive to red
light which apparently penetrates
the thick curtain much better than
blue light to which ordinary plates
are most sensitive. The new photo
graphs show marked differences in
the patterns of the great cosmic
clouds which make up the curtain
and q number of new objects have
been discovered.
One is gigantic, family lumines-
cent nebula, comparable in size
to- the great nebula in the con-
stellation of Orion, Of which only
few faint wisps could be dis
cerned on the photographs taken
with blue plates. This is probably
q titanic accumulation Of the ma
terial of unborn stars, gas and
dust tossed about in space like
clouds in the sky before a storm,
with density far less than that
Of the most perfect vacuum ever
achieved on earth, but because Of its
great dimensions, with a mass many
Thousands Of times that Of the
sun.
DR.. Baade also found a hah dozen
very heavily obscured globular clus-
tiers Of stars, presumably buried in
the depths of the star dust. The
center Of the galaxy itself. more
than 1000 light years from the
earth, still remains hidden.
Observes Nebular Eclipse.
BY means Of his red photographs
DR.. Baade was able to make the
first observation of the eclipse of
nebula, somewhat like an eclipse
Of the sun by the moon. This great
mass of cosmic dust, registered on
astronomical maps as NCG 1851,
ordinarily is rendered family lumi-
nous by the light of brilliant star
buried within it. Last winter, the
Carnegie astronomer reports, half
the cloud was blackened. The
boundary of the illuminated area
was a sharp, straight line passing
through the Illuminating star.
For two months. the red photo
graphs showed, the edge Of the
shadow moved eastward until the
whole nebula was cleared and ap-
peared with its usual luminosity.
The eclipse is best explained, the
astronomers believe, by assuming
that some gigantic object, perhaps
an enormous dead star, made 4
close approach to the star which
ordinarily lights up the nebula and
that its black shadow was thrown
many light years through the cos
mic dust belt.
Strange Fog on Plates.
While the red photography method
Is considered by the Mount Wilson
astronomers as a powerful new tool
for penetrating some of the hidden
corners of creation its usefulness
is decreased, they reported, by q
strange sky fog which sometimes
appears on the plates. This is due,
they believe, to the red light in the
aurora borealis, probably exagger-
ated during the past year by the
abundance Of sunspots. The aurora
itself Is not visible in the California
latitude but actually it probably
affects to some extent most Of the
Northern Hemisphere sky.
Carnegie astronomers also re-
ported today new estimates on the
rate Of rotation Of the Milky Way
galaxy around its hidden center.
This was based on studies by DR..
Alfred H. Joy Of the rate Of rotation
Of the type Of stars known Is
Cephis variables whose intermittent