Evening star., 1939-12-15
Carnegie Scientists
Produce Exploding
Carbon-Dioxide
Rare Discovery
On Life Made at
Laboratory Here
Continued From Page A-6)

@NDOsAAS'/ s'SsS
Continued From Page A-6.)
q millionfold emptier than the in
side of an electric light bulb. It
consists of extremely fine dust par
ticles and atoms and molecules of
various elements, chiefly sodium,
which may be inches apart. 1t is
far denser, however, than the al
most completely empty space around
it, through which light may move
for hundreds of years with nothing
to stop it and hence without any
change in its spectrum.
Despite the vacuum-like character
Of such dust cloud, it has a very
marked effect on the light passing
through it because of the enormous
distance which must be traversed.
During the year the Carnegie Insti-
tuition astronomers have analyzed
the light OF more than $500 stars
in various regions of the Milky Way.
This great road of milky light across
the sky represents the concentration
of billions of stars looking inward
from the sun into the thick lens
shaped galaxy. Considerable Sec
tions Of it, the Carnegie astron-
omers found, would be more than
twice as bright as at present, were
1t not for the obscuring clouds of
dust.
Another discovery of the year, the
significance Of which is not yet
clear, is that dust particles and
strata of cosmic gases occur to-
gether, thus increasing the density
or light-stopping capacity of the
celestial clouds.
Remain Unknown.
The sun Is extremely unlikely to
come into too close contact with
its neighbors, 1t is shown by a
survey of the local region of the
heavens completed by Mount Wilson
astronomers during the year. But
nearly half Of these neighbors re-
main unknown, 1t was found. OBJ
servations and calculations by DR..
Adrian van Maanen show that in
this region there may be expected
an average of a little more than
tenth of star per cub parSec of
Of space On this basis there must
be approximately SO stars within
range of five parsecs of the sun in
all directions. This is in easily OBJ
servable distance with present-day
equipment. Yet through all the
centuries of observations only IS
such stars have yet been found, and
three of these are of unknown type
One explanation is that the elusive
stars are too faint to be seen, be-
longing to the weird classes of white
and black dwarfs-extremely small
but with densities of several torC
per cubic centimenter. They are
composed of matter in degenerate
state" consisting of the closely
packed nuclei of atoms. They are
all matter and no space.
In this connection it was an
nounced that DR.. Van Maanen has
discovered the faintest star yet re-
corded. with luminosity less than
one fifty -thousandth that of the
sun. The spectrum of this star in
dicates that it is one of the recently
recognized white dwarfs, extraordi-
narily minute stars of extreme den-
sity and temperature. They repre-
sert, it is believed, one of the final
stages in the life history Of a heav-
emily body. Several such white
dwarfs were found with candle
power less than -thousandth
that of the sun.
At the other extreme the average
output for the most luminous stars
which have temperature of ap-
proximately 10000 c. at the Sir
face, is about 10000 times that of
the sun. The quality of light sent
forth by the sun is roughly midway
between that of the faintest and the
brightest stars.
An intensive search was made
during the year for more moons OF
the planet Jupiter. A year ago DR.
Seth Nicholson announced the dis
covery of two new satellites of the
largest of the suns planets ano
there was no assurance that there
might not be many more.
Throughout the summer the re-
gion of Jupiter was searched in.
tensively with telescopes. About SO
asteroids, tiny planets moving in
their own orbits around the sun
were discovered. Some of these
moved so nearly like satellites that
it was necessary to follow them for
several days to make sure that they
were not baby members of the
giant planets family.
At the same time, DR.. Nicholson
observed and calculated accurately
the sizes and orbits of the new
planets. One has probable di-
ameter Of 15.5 miles and the other
of 1875. The one completes its orbit
around Jupiter in 260 days, while
the other completes its period OF
revolution in about 700 days.
Another study conducted by DR.
Theodore Dunham led to the de-
Examinations of the relative abun-
dance of particles in empty space
Five elements, existing in the form
of extremely minute particles, have
been identified-hydrogen, sodium
potassium, calcium and titanium
Hydrogen is about 10 million-folo
the most abundant, DR.. Dunham's
researches show. Sodium is by fal
the most abundant Of the solid par
ticles, being about eight-fold greater
than that Of potassium, which IL
next in order. 1t is about 80 times
rs abundant as calcium, which oc'