Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1870 — Recent Astronomical Observations. [ARTICLE]

Recent Astronomical Observations.

It is worth while sometimes in this busy age to take note how fast the world moves. A few years ago we thought of New South Wales only as “Botany Bay,” a flowery name for anything but a beautiful place in its humanity, whatever it may be in its natural features. Now, one colony alone, Victoria, has a population of nearly seven hundred thousand, onefourth of whom reside in Melbourne, the capital. That capital is distinguished, among other things, for its university, and tnat university for its observatory, with apparatus among the best in the world. The “ convict*,” if there is an appreciable number ofthat class in the now teeming colonies, may have their consolation at their inability to leave, in the fact that the latest news from the sun is theirs, til the constellation, the ship Argo. It is a round about way, to be sure, some indefinite millions of millions of miles. But modern science makes nothing of space. We learn from Melbourne that the star Eta, in the keel of the ship Argo, is now a star in fl ernes. And what ismore curious, we learn that the nebula, about which there have been so many theories, is the fuel which keeps suns in action. At least, such is the deduction of astronomers; and what we cannot dispute or successfully controvert, we may as well believe. The reasoning is as follows: When Sir John Herschel made his splendid observations on the Southern heavens, some thirty years ago, the star Eta, then of the first magnitude, seemed to be imbedded in nebulous matter. In 1843 it had declined to a star of the sixth magnitude, while the neb-

ulous matter had increased in splendor. Now again the star is increasing, and presents the appearance of a star in flames. And what is most remarkable, the nebulous matter around the star has disappeared. That this phenomenon is not due to the brightness of the star is proved by the accurate and wonderful apparatus which the astronomers now use. The nebulous matter is not there, and has really retreated from that star, or gone into combustion. Sir John Herschel's theory is that the nebulous matter is far beyond the stars in space. But the Melbourne astronomer, M. Le Suer, suggests that the star Eta and the nebulous matter are neighbors, and the star is now increasing in brightness—it is digesting the nebulous matter which it has absorbed. A* the nebulous matter increases again the star Eta is expected to resume its former splendor; that is to say, the fuel, will be kept in regular supply. But what has this to do with our sun?

The inference is that it has its nebulous surroundings, of course invisible to us under ordinary circumstances. But it is argued in the London Spectator that we do “ see the solar nebula? in the crown of glory which shines around the sun during total eclipses. The peculiar contorted structure at portions of the corona, and the variable brilliancy and extent of the object during eclipses, seem clearly to point to the conclusion that our sun, like Eta of Argo, has its nebulous surrounding, and that, like Eta of Argo, too, our sun is a star in flamee.”— ' Philadelphia Ledyer. Tn horse railroad which has been opened in Ixmdon proves very successful It is an exact imitation of the American institution, and is fitted up in the same way. One of the directors of Uw road drove the fifrt car.