Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1901 — A New Heavenly Visitor. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A New Heavenly Visitor.

In mid-sky a new star is blazing, challenging the eminence of the brightest of the heavenly bodies. A search of the photographs of the heavens taken every clear evening at Harvard now shows that on Feb. 19 there was present in the place now filled by the glowing stranger a faint, modest little spark, far too dim to be caught by the unaided eye. Something happened to that pin hole in the black canopy of night and made a new sun of it—a sun so huge and bright that our own could probably be swallowed up in it and the inhabitants of worlds as far away as we are from it would never know it. There is a theory about it, of course, a theory that a sullen, black, burned out sphere, a dead giant of the skies whirling through unthinkable distances, was cast into a cloud of nebulae or vapor, and the grinding of the cloud dust has set it aflame again. And now it is blazing like a torch, and all the telescopes of wondering earth are pointed at it, and all the astronomers are trying to read the message to science that is being flashed from the zenith. /•fame of the ftebu Visitor. The new star (Nova Persei, so called because it is in the constellation of Perseus) is one of the brightest stars visible. This is how to find it: First look at Capella, which is the very brightest star close to the zenith In the early evenings at present, then look directly west. A triangle of ordinary stars will be found with Nova Persei directly in the middle. Persei is about twice as far from the North star as from Capella. It is fully as bright as Cape Ha.. The triangle is made up of Alpha Persei, Beta Persei Epsilon Persei. The new star is near the-border of the Milky Way in the constellation Perseus. The brightest new star ever previously known is Tycho’s»star, discovered in 1572. This also appeared In the edge of the Milky Way, and Kepler's new star, in 1604, likewise was in the Milky Way. It is probable the new star is very distant. None has ever been seen near enough to afford a sensible parallax. Its distance is probably not less than six millions of times the distance of the earth from the sun. Its sudden increase of brightness is not due to its coming nearer—although it may be doing that—but to growth of intensity in

Its radiation, caused probably by a swift Increase of heat. A motion of approach to the earth amounting to 500 miles a second—which is about the maximum rapidity that could be ascribed—would not bring this star into our immediate neighborhood In less than 30,000 years. The chances are that when this star fades it will disappear altogether. That Is what happened in two previous instances that are known of very brilliant new stars—those of Tycho, in 1672, and of Kepler, }n 1604. There isno trace of those stars left. Smaller new stars, like that of 1892, have usually faded into comparatively faint objects without entirely vanishing. May HcvVe Motion or JVot. It cannot yet be told whether this ■tar shows motion or not. Careful spectroscopic examination of its light will be requffed to determine that question. The probability is that spectra of at least a number of different bodies, moving in different directions, It will be found in it. It is only in case h considerable part of their motion is toward or from the earth that it can be detected by the spectroscope. If the motion is across our line of sight it will not affect the position of the lines in the spectrum. The swiftness with which the light of the new star has grown seems best to accord with the theory that the cause of the outburst was the plunging of a solid body of immense size'and mass through a cloud of gas or of meteoric dust. When the earth encounters a swarm of meteors similar phenomenon on a small scale are presented. Yet such a meteoric display as that of 1833 on the earth would probably have been visible from some of the planets, whose inhabitants might have supposed that a sudden conflagration had broken out on this globe. But, as already remarked, light and heat developed by any known encounter of earth with a cloud of meteors are insignificant compared with the outburst which has Just occurred in the sky. Yet the cause may be similar in its nature, but vastly greater in its extent and effect. The latest discoveries In astronom-

ical photography show that the space is full of nebulous clouds, invisible with telescopes, which nevertheless, are probably dense enough to cause vast conflagration upon any solid globe rushing swiftly through them. Such a globe would be in the condition of a meteor rushing into the earth’s atmosphere. As long as it continues to move

through the air the friction of its passage renders its surface incandescent, and it glows brighter and brighter until it attains the maximum of brilliance. If it should go on indefinitely rushing through the air it would finally be totally consumed. But it requires only a few minutes

at most to penetrate the whole depth of air, and so it arrives at the earth — if at all—with its surface charged and contorted with fierce heat, but its interior ypt cool. Ho tv the Fire Would Start. So an immense body like an extinguished sun, or gigantic planet, plunged with a velocity of hundreds ot miles a second through a mass of meteoric dust or of gas a million miles or more in diameter, would traverse the mass in a few hours, and while during its passage it would be enwrapped with devouring flames and its surface would be rendered intensely incandescent, yet as soon as the passage was completed it would quickly

The project to mark the grave of David Kennison in Lincoln Park, Chicago, with a monument which will perpetuate his connection with the historic Boston tea party bids fair to meet with success. Officers of the colonial societies directly interested in the plan feel confident that their idea will meet with popular approval, and that the

begin to cool off, because the heat would not have had time to penetrate densely into the solid mass. This is probably the reason why new stars flame out so suddenly and Cade so quickly, and why very great ones that have been seen have entirely disappeared. A small body plunging through a resisting medium might be completely vaporized, and it would

afterward continue to shine with nebulous light, while a very large body would be too massive to become heated throughout and as its surface quickly cooled, it would lose its brilliancy and consequently entirely disappear from our range of vision.

DIAGRAM SHOWING DISTANCE OF NEW STAR FROM THE SUN.