MYSTERY IN THE HEAVENS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 43, 14 November 1907, Page 4

MYSTERY IN THE HEAVENS

HUGE DARK SERPENT MASS. Wo havo long heard of dead worlds and dead or dying suns; but a "dead that surely seems a contradiction in terms, for the nebiilre (misty, cloiid-like "aggregations of celestial matter often resolvable through'the' telescope into stars) have generally been regarded as the beginnings of cosmical life. Yet recent photographic exploration of the heavens has revealed mysterious objects which seem to be better described by such a name than by any other that can he applied to them.

Professor E. E. Barnard has recently added to bis wonderful series of photographs one of a region in the constellation Taurus, containing a long, crooked, knotted, dark mnss, which winds about like a huge serpent among a bed of stars. It looks as if it shut out tho light of the stars over which it crawls. It is uncanny, monstrous, inexplicable. Millions of leagues it stretches along, and the stars seem to fly from its presence.

At one place there is a living, shining nebula set in the midst of its black coils, as if its heart were still alive, and feebly beating with the vibrations of light—which in the universe stands for life. Around this visible speek there is a faint glow, suggesting the gathering of the last life blood about the heart of a perishing creature, and beyond that all is dark. The stars aro myriad outside the coils, but within them only hero and' there glitters a stellar point. DEAD NEBULA. Professor Barnard suggests that these few may be on this side of tlio dead nebula, and not within it. Ho employs the phrase, but he. does not commit himself to the assertion that the hlack object really is a dead nebula. Ho confesses that ho does not know what it is—and nobody else can pretend to know. But the reality of tho thing is bc-j yond question.

Tho darkness appears to be "something really The best proof of this perhaps is found in the fact that there are portions of the " vacancy " which are perceptibly darker than the adjacent starless sky. Some of these darker places might be likened to knots in a coil, or to deep pools in a winding stream. Referring to the shining spot and the faint surrounding glow, Professor Barnard says: —

"The pictures seem to show that the brighter part of this nebula is only a small portion of it, and that the nebula is freely luminous over most of the vacancy; The feebler portions of the nebula would almost suggest the iilea that a largo nebula exists here, hut Hint the major portion of it is dead; or non-luminous." With proper scientific caution, Professor Barnard does not push this idea very far, air though he thinks that continued study of such objects—for this is not the only one of the kind in the sky—"will some day develop facts of the greatest importance in explaining the real structure of the heavens." To Professor Garrett P. Serviss it seems that the form of tho mysterious dark object in Taurus becomes exceedingly suggestive when it is compared with that of a bright straggling nebula photographed some years ago by Mr. Ritchey and others in the constellation Pegasus. In both cases the' shape is remarkably similar. Tho bright nebula in Pegasus 'is long, winding, and knotted, and surrounded with multitudes of small stars. The F.amo description applies -to the dark nebula in ■ Taurus. This in itself may' be regarded as an argument in- favour of tho view that the latter is a dead nebula—that is to say, one which has parted with its luminosity.'-•'■- ' ■ • ■ ABORTIVE EFFORT IN NATURE. . If wo cling to the idea that the 'nebulae are tho..germs from,■which, , .- stars (Originate , , then 'this., object in' Taurus "may "represent an a.bprtivo'effort of nature, and' nature everywhere 1 a!)oun(ls , "iii r ''suWuifngs:" c, T]i : e nebula was horn—how, we cannot tell. It began its career 'as a luminous object (this may bo regarded as proved by' tho continued existence of I bright nucleus within it) • It drifted about like a cloud in space, and then, instead of condensing into stars, it died away." A similar fate may be in store for its bright congener in Pegasus. ' ' Or we may adopt tho idea formed by Professor Rarnard, that the nebulae arc not, in general, the beginning of stars or star clouds, but that they are rather .independent existences, whose purpose and part in the universal plan are yet mysterious to U3. The suggestion of tangibility, not to say of solidity, which the dark object in Taurns and others in Ophiuchus and Scorpio coiivey, with L-heir apparent ability to hide stars and the sky behind them, is a thing not easy to explain.

Nebulae have always been regarded as,cxtromely tenuous; how , then can they serve a3 effective screens for brilliant points of light ? That they may absorb some light will readily be granted', but that they can be sufficiently massive or dense to act like great impervious clouds in space is, at least, a surprising thought. Anvhow, as has already been said, the reality of the phenomena shown in the photographs is beyond question. The strange shapes of darkness are there, explain them how we will. They are'"not mere appearances, not simple effects of contrast, but actual thinner., a part of tho framework, so to speak, of the universe, which is thus shown to be immensely more complicated and marvellous than the astronomers of even only half or a quarter of a century ago ever imagined it to bo. ' ■

When we think of the universe, nnd when We clauce up at it, we arc impressed'with its brilliance and its luminosity, hut in the future we may find that its darknesses and its invisibilities include its greatest wonders. For we should novcir forget, that invisibility to human eyes is not, of itself, invisibility. What we onll liuht represents but an infinitesimal portion of the enormous range of radintion. Other eyes mnv see clearly where all is darkness to us.—"Seienco Sifting."