Evening star., 1940-12-11
How Earth May End
With Sun Explosion
Told by Astronomer
Dr.. Edwin Hubble 1uIks
At Corneeie Institution
On Milky Way BIosts
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Here's how the earth will end
some day-maybe!
There are about so 600, ,000, 900 stars
in the great milky way galaxy Of
which the sun In part.
Every year approximately 80 Of
them explode. They blow of en-
velopes of flaming gas which rush
outward in all directions at a speed
of about 1000 miles second. Their
brightness-that Is, their heat and
light-increases approximately 10O,-
000-fold.
Nobody knows how long the galaxy
has been in existence, but recent
study indicates something between
2,O0O, 100000 and 5000, 900 900 years.
There is practically conclusive evi-
dence that the sun never has ex-
ploded, at least in the last billion
years. During this period, probably,
half the stars in the system have
had this experience.
Astronomer Speaks.
The conclusions are obvious. Such
an explosion would certainly wipe
out all life on earth. 1t would take
exactly an hour and a half for the
tide of fire from the exploding sun
to reach the earth and blot out all
living things.
But DR.. Edwin Hubble, astronomer
of the Carnegie Institution of Wash
ington, was not quite so pessimistic
when he talked of the latest findings
of the institutions Mount Wilson
observatory at the headquarters
here last night.
1t may be, he said, that the
present numbers of exploding stars
in the Milky Way galaxy may be
temporary, due to some dynamic
condition in the vast agglomeration
of stars, and that exceptional num-
bers of them which happen to be
in just the right condition are blow
ing up. Novae, as the exploding
stars are called, may have been rare
during most Of the earth's history.
In that case the law of averages
could not be applied and there
would be no need for concern about
the sun.
So far as astronomers know. there
is no particular reason why 1t
should explode in the near future
rather than any other star.
Many Seen With Telescope.
The one thing certain, Dr. Hubble
said, is that when the explosion
does come it will be the end
Until a few years ago, he eX-
planned, star explosions were as
sumed to be rare events. Only five
have been seen in the Goth century
with the naked eye The great
Mount Wilson telescope, however,
has caught numerous such events
in the far depths of space-leading
to the present estimate OF a high
yearly average.
The really rare events in crea-
ton, DR. Hubble said, are super
novae-star explosions when there
is an increase in brightness 0,000,-
000-fold-a thousand times brighter
than An ordinary nova. A star
hitherto too faint to be seen with
the naked eye suddenly becomes
almost as bright as all the other
$4,000, 100000 stars in the heavens
put together
Only two of these have taken
place in the Milky Way system dur
ing human history. One was re-
corded by Chinese and japanese as
tronomers in 1854 and the other by
Tycho Brahe, the Danish astrono-
mer. in 1872.
The Mount Wilson and University
of California astronomers, however.
have been able to observe scores of
them in the last two years in the
external galaXies which suddenly
flare up to nearly twice their ordi-
nary brightness. 1t now appears. DR..
Hubble said, that there is one SUI
pernovae explosion on an average
about every 600 years in the average
galaxy. The cause of the star ex-
n1ocionc ic l,rknou-o