Evening star., 1950-03-31
Strange Star Found
As Neighbor Of Sun
Mysterious Sudden FIoreups
Noted on Heavenly Body

Mysterious Sudden FIoreups
Noted on Heavenly Body
By Thomos R. Henry
A strange star which appears to b
the suns second nearest neighbor In
space has Just been found In the
southern sky.
It Is not much more than 80 trtllion
miles away and may be as close as
so trillion miles.
It Is a double star. Two stars Of ap-
proximately equal masses revolve around
each other in period Of about is years.
Each has about a ninth the mass Of
the sun. Presumably both are very heavy
stars for their size.
It is q red-presumably relatively
cool-little star and its luminosity, so
far as visible light Is concerned, is less
than 200,000th that of the sun.
These are some Of the conclusions Of
DR.. William j. Luyten Of the University
Of Minnesota, reported In the Astro-
physical Journal The suns queer neigh
Dor was discovered in a resurvey of
the southern skies. It Is located 50
far north, however, that 1t can be
observed with telescopes in the Southern
United States. DR.. Luyten was first
impressed by It's exceptionally large
parallax. or angle with the diameter Of
the earths orbit, which indicated that
it must be quite close.
This unnamed star becomes OF excep-
tional interest because of new kind
of stellar phenomenon. The brightness
of one of the components was observed
to increase suddenly 12-fold in 3 min
utes and sink back again after about
20 minutes. This is greater flareup
than has been observed for any of the
supernovae in the same period. The
supernovae represent the greatest star
explosions known. Only three ever have
been observed in the Milky Way galaxy
They are observed in other galaxies
millions Of light years distant.
Tons Turned Into Light.
During this 20 minutes, DR.. Luyten
calculates, about $4,000 tons of the stars
substance was converted into light.
No explanation is possible at present
DR.. Luyten suggests it might be due to
collision with some other heavenly
body. such as small planet.
The new pair of stars represent about
the smallest objects that can be detected
at stellar distances.
The suns nearest neighbor stiIl re-
mains the double star Alpha Centauri,
from which light moving at about 180,-
600 miles second requires five years
to reach the earth. The new object
is certainly little further away, but it
may be nearer than Barnard's star,
the suns supposed second nearest
neighbor.
Treatment Of frostbite-a major med
1cal problem in the last war and likely
to be still more important in a future
world conflicts being considerably
advanced under an Office of Naval Re
search contract with the University of
Indiana Medical School.
Mice and rabbits with tails and ears
in dry ice have rather effectively dis
credited some old fallacies, according to
report to the Navy by DR.. Harris B.
Schumacher, jr., who has been conduct
ing the experiments. One Of these is that
there should be slow thawing-the old
rural idea that the best way to treat
frostbite is to rub snow on the affected
part. ,a
Actually, DR.. Schumacher reports.
there is less loss Of tissue and less like
lihood Of gangrene-the great danger of
frostbite-when heat slightly above body
heat is applied and thawing is quite
rapid.
Blocking Drug Temporary.
There has been some success In
anaesthetizing the sympathetic nerves
serving the frost-bitten area. This
causes the blood vessels to dilate. The
best blocking drug has been found to
be tetraethyl ammonium chloride whose
effects are quite temporary.
Still another treatment of some value
has been achieved with the new drugs
rutin and benadryl which act as anti
coagulants of the blood.
In the last war the problem Of frost
bite arose early with the crews Of high
altitude bombers and with ship wrecked
sailors.
Old ideas also are falling by the way
in another ONR project at the University
of Kansas where DR.. Louis Lipovski is
studying the habits of chiggers-a nui-
sance everywhere and carriers of such
serious diseases as scrub typhus in the
Pacific.
These insects are so minute that
actually they seldom are seen. They are
exceptionally difficult to raise in lab
oratory. AS result very little of their
ways Of life has been known in the past.
First, DR.. Lipovski has found, they
never burrow under the skin, as is almost
universally believed.
Second. they never suck blood.
What actually happens, it was found.
is that the minute little bugs inject under
the skin of their victims digestive fluid
which dissolves tiny amount of tissue.
Then the chigger sucks up this tissue.
This is responsible for the almost in
tolerable itching.
Questions and Answers
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