Evening star., 1941-12-04
Of Sturs, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress.
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r, Henry.
The sun Is more than 100000 miles
further from the earth than hitherto
has been supposed.
This Is the calculation of DR.. H. Spen-
Ger Jones. astronomer royal Of Great
Britain. undertaken on behalf Of the
astronomers Of the world.
The distance Is one of the fundamental
units OF naturs-ths footrule OF astron-
omers for measuring the vast reaches
between the stars In the United States
Naval Almanac 1t is given As 81, ,897, ,+l6
miles, a distance which light traverses
in about nine minutes,
The new figure, by far the most ac-
surate yet calculated, is 93,003 900 miles.
DR.. Jones and his assistants have spent
10 years on the computations.
The story goes back to January, 1881.
Scattered through planetary space, most
ly between Mars and Jupiter. are thou
sands Of planetoids, the so-called "lice OF
the heavens" They are little balls OF
rock which move in orbits around the
sun like the earth and the other planets
Only one Of them is Of absorbing interest
a mass OF rock about II miles in d.
ameter known as Eros, named for the
Greek god of love by its German dis
coverer in 1898.
Eros has an extremely eccentric orbit.
Two or three times q century it ap-
proaches closer to the earth than any
other heavenly body except the moon
and possibly an occasional comet. The
nights of January 80 and 81, 10 years
ago. 1t approached within 16,200, 900
miles, about 7,000,00 miles closer than
Earth's ordinarily nearest neishbor. the
planet Venus.
Now the simplest way of measuring
distances in the heavens is by means
of triangulation. precisely the same as
that used by surveyors in determining
distances on the surface OF the earth
Tho diameter Of the earth-or in the
case Of distant stars, the diameter OF its
orbit-provides the known base OF an
enormous triangle whose apex Is the
heavenly object. The nearer the object
the larger the angles. Hence the lengths
OF the sides Of the triangle can be de-
termined with greater precision.
The close approach Of Eros offered an
almost ideal opportunity for such a tri-
angulation. With the world at peace
almost every observatory on earth
equipped with means Of photosraphing
the heavens took pictures Of the plane
told, carefully observing the time and
their own positions At the most favor
able time the diameter OF the earth
formed the base Of triangle which, TO
an observer on Eros itself, would have
been half the length Of the diameter Of
the full moon.
Then all these observations. by inter-
national agreement, were sent to DR..
Jones at the Greenwich Observatory
just outside Of London. His Job was
to correlate them all into q determine
ton of Eros exact position at its closest
approach. This provided an accurately
known point outside the earth to be used
In calculating the distance OF the sun.
1t has been lob OF almost incredible
tedlousness and difficulty. At the worst,
DR.. Jones calculations show, the final
result cannot be more than 5000 miles
out OF the vsy. The present of1icial
value Is admitted by astronomers to have
. probable error OF as much as 1000
miles
The observations may yield an even
more accurate value, according to DR..
Fred L. Whipple of the University of
California in the current issue of Sky
and Telescope, issued at the Harvard
university Observatory. From them can
De determined the perturbations in the
orbit OF Eros caused by the gravitational
attractions of the earth and the moon
at Its closest distance. Since Rrayita-
tlonal pull varies precisely with distance
and the major attraction is that of the
sun. the distortions in the balance will
PROVIDE extremely accurate measure
ment standards, The calculations how.
ever, Will be extremely laborious.
Inc Haitian voodoo cult, direct de-
scendant Of the native religion of the
Dahomey coast Of West Africa, is near
ing its last days except in remote jungles
OF the West Indian republic.
This is the word brought back to
washington by DR.. Alfred Metraux.
Smithsonian Institution archeoloeist
VINO has just returned with one of the
finest collections of yoodoo c.rer,opi,1
paraphernalia yet assembled.
The decline of voodooism is associated
with an intensive drive by missionaries.
A recent investigation showed that some
OF the most ardent members of the cult
also were prominent in various Chris
tan churches. They had recognized no
essential discrepancy between the two
loyalties until it was explained to them
by the missionaries