THAT "LUMBER-ROOM" BEYOND

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 87, 12 April 1902, Page 7 (Supplement)

THAT "LUMBER-ROOM" BEYOND

Dr. Aloyandur W. Roberts lmstrun interesting urtielo iv Chuwbant'ij Journal on astronomical pxobJeiiiß. Here in -oue -extiaot : — " Photography has enabled -lostaonomers i to peer fur into tho depths of spauo;° nay, oven, perhaps to have glimpses of that hiutanond that lies beyond ~the universe of stars. Wfoen very-long-exposmo photographs of the sky aro taken, m\y, of 20 to 30 hours, takon, of course, on dilTerout nights — they do nob reveal a vast background of sUiid, us we would expect. liideod, they do not reveal many moro sfcais than photographs of shorter exposure ; but they reveal a background apparently of wisps and Streamers and whorls of nebuloTtti matter." "Is it possible," asks Dr. Roberts, "that we are seeing beyond the stars into that lumber-room where world-stuff is stored?" T6 the ordinary astronomer tho future line of astronomical progress is, in Dr. Roberta's opinion, simply to answer the old lines, " How I wonder what you are, up above the world so high." That was the problem a hundred years ago ; ii> will be the problem, before astronomers a hundred years hence : — "We have only lifted a corner of tho fringe of tho veil that still hides so much from. us. It is true we do seem to know something of the stars, of their distance, their size, their composition, their evolution; but how little do we know I Tho Chicago great refractor repeals, it is estimated, 25,000, 0t)0 stard). and we know the distance of about a hundred of these, tho weight of ten, the composition of about 300, tho size of five, and the absoiute movements of 201" Dr. Roberts returns to his hundred-year-old treatise in a "humble spirit." " Ono is apt to got inflated with tho idea of what groat things are being done in one day, but the 25,000,000 stars has a sobering effect."