Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1952-09-24
Ghost Of q Dead Stor
Found Broodcostinq
Intense Radio Emonotions
From Milky Way Studied


From Milky Way Studied
By Thomos R. Henry
The ghost Of star dead for nearly
400 years Is broadcasting out Of the
northern skies.
Detection OF intense radio emanations
from the point In the northern constel-
lation Of Cassiopeia where one Of the
three supernovae known to man In the
Milky Way Galaxy occurred In 1871 has
just been announced by two British
astronomers. Drs. r. Hamburg Brown
and c. Hazard OF the University Of
Manchester.
There Is no visible object In the neigh
borhood Of the heavens where this star
was observed by the old astronomer.
Tycho Brahe. but. the new observations
show, there must be something left there
extremely hot. It Is q powerful source
Of radiation.
Some Of the most powerful radiation
yet found In the new science Of radio
astronomy comes from the Cassiopeia
constellation and apparently it has
drowned out the specific radiation from
the star site. Drs. Brown and Hazard.
however, have been able to discriminate
it.
Sources Of Intense Radiation.
Up to now approximately 100 point
sources Of intense radiation have been
located in the heavens. There Is no
specific visible object near any Of them.
but all may be locations Of exploded
stars.
Brahe, the Danish astronomer thus
described what he saw
Zone, evening when was contemplate
ing the celestial vault saw. with mex
pressible atonishment, near the zenith in
Cassiopeia radiant star Of extraordi-
nary magnitude. The new star was des-
titute of tail. It's brightness exceeded
that Of Sirius and Of Jupiter. It could
only be compared with that Of Venus.
Persons gifted with good sight could
distinguish this star In daylight, even
at MONDAY when the sky was clear. AT
night, with cloudy sky, when other
stars were yelled, the new star often re-
NAMED visible through tolerably thick
clouds. The distances Of this star from
the other stars Of Cassiopeia, which I
measured the following year with the
greatest care. have convinced me OF its
complete immobility. From the month
Of December, 1872. its brightness began
to diminish. It was then equal to Jupi-
ter In January. 1873. 1t became less
brilliant than Jupiter; In February and
March equal to stars Of the first order:
in April and May to stars Of the second
order. In March. 1874, the new star
disappeared without leaving trace visi-
BILE to the naked eye. having shone for
II months"
In 1904 q similar star appeared and
was observedeby the famous astronomer.
Kepler. It also remained visible. con-
stantly diminishing in brightness, for
II months.
Recorded by Chinese.
Nothing now Is visible In any tele.
scope of either Brahe's or Keplers stars.
In 1854. however, q similar event had
been recorded by Chinese astronomers.
and in the location they described Is a
peculiar crab-shaped nebulosity which Is
believed to be the ghost" Of this super
nova.
These three are the only such events
recorded in the time Of man In the whole
hundred billion-star Milky Way galaxy.
Presumably they happen, on an average,
only once in about 500 years in this
great aggregation Of all sorts Of stars.
Within late years. however. telescopes
have been trained on the other galaxies
In space, and such q supernova can be
picked up somewhere about once year.
3 Apparently some quite ordinary star
suddenly increases In brightness mil
lion to billionfold and then completely
disappears. It is an atomic bomb ex-
plosion Of celestial magnitude. the great
est outburst Of energy possible in the
universe.
One of the most intense sources Of
radiation yet found is the Crab Nebula.
remnant of the Supernova described by
the Chinese.
Thus far, however, 1t has been inn
possible to detect anything coming from
the location Of Kepler's star.