Evening star., 1953-12-27
Naval Astronomers
Find Ghost Stars in
Milky Way Galaxy
By Thomas R. Henry
Science Editor Of The star.

0t nomoS X. Henry
Science Editor Of The Star.
BOSTON, Dec. 26.-With a
kind Of invisible light now being
utilized for the first time, as
tronomers of the Naval Research
Laboratory are finding new
gigantic ghost stars" in the
characterization star Milky Way
galaxy. They are solving hitherto
unsolvable secrets of the vast.
whirling group Of celestial OBJ
jects of which the solar system is
an inf1nitesimally minute part.
These findings with the new
600-inch radio telescope at Ana
costa, were described before the
120th national meeting of the
American Association for the
Advancement of Science here
today by Dr.. John P. Hagen and
his colleagues of the laboratory
staff.
The naval astronomers appear
to be on the threshold of a new
world of light. hitherto closed to
human vision. With the newly
installed apparatus they are able
to detect objects-whatever they
may be-which radiate into
space nine-centimeter waves,
radiation just inside the short
edge of the radio spectrum.
New Radiation Sources.
Most notable of the first find
ings are two new intense sources
of radiation. One is from the
diffuse luminous cloud, or neb-
ula, which is barely visible to the
naked eye in the constellation
of Orion whose visible stars in
clude Betelgeuse. largest OF the
stars, and Rigel, one of the
brightest. 1t is about 1000 light
years from the earth-that is,
the distance which would be
traversed by light in millennium
moving at a speed of abOut
10000 miles a second. The
other is in the northern con-
stellation of Cygnus, approx
mately 5000 light years, or
$4,000, 600, ,000, 100000 miles away.
DR.. Fred T. Haddock and his
associates, DrS. Cornell H.
Myer and Russell M. Sloanaker,
jr., of the laboratory staff des-
cribed these latter findings. No
specific objects, which can be
located in any telescope, can be
identified with these radiation
sources. They are, however,
obviously extremely massive and
hot objects.
Within the last decade the
new radio astronomy has essen
TALLY doubled mans concept of
the mass of the galaxy. The
hundred billion or more visible
stars which can be Disseminated
in telescope such as the 200
inch one at Mount Palomar hap
pen to send out radiation which
falls within the extremely mar
row limits to which the human
eye is sensitive-that is, visible
light" In terms of what could
be discerned with this visible
light creation has been meted
and bounded.
Creations Spectral Stars.
It now is obvious that there
are many stars" which do not ]
emit visible light but which send 1
out radiations of far greater wave
length, falling within the classi-
f1cation Of radio waves. About
20 such objects have been dis
eliminated in the Milky Way
galaxy to date. They are crea-
tion'S spectral stars, whose ma
ture is completely unknown. At
least one, however, is located
within the Crab nebula, gener-
ally presumed to be what is left
OF a supernova, a gigantic star
explosion recorded by Chinese
astronomers several thousand
years ago.
Most of the work to date, car
ried on chiefly in England and
Australia. has been> with the
short radio wave length of 81
centimeters which is an emana-
tion of pure hydrogen gas, the
most abundant substance in Gre
alton, heated to a critical tenn
perature. It has been a conven-
lent radiation for the astron-
omers. BY isolating this wave
length they have been able to
determine the so-called "doppler
effect" the shortening or length
ening Of wave-length depending
on the direction and speed of
moving object from which it
comes. Thus, it has been pos
sible to develop new pictures of
the rotation of the titanic galaxy
in space and the position of the
solar system in this rotation.
Ability to discriminate with
precision the nine-centimeter
radiation now greatly broadens
the scope of radio astronomy.
RadiatiOns From Sun.
Previously DR.. Hagen pointed
out, the major efforts of the
Naval Research Laboratory
-