THE NEW STAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4407, 13 July 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NEW STAR.

The new star in the constellation Perseu# . promises to be the, astronomical wonder, of the present generation. It continue*'' to attract a great amount of attention in • scientific circles, and its goings on are ad* mitted to be somewhat puzzling. 'After becoming rapidly brighter for two dr three' days after its appearance it began to fade, , and -continued to do so for some time; but then it brightened again, then faded, and again brightened. It is these fluctuations that are puzzling, for they cannot be got to agree' with any of the favoured theories as to the cause of "the outburst. If, as. Sir Norman Lockyer thinks, it was the rushing together of two meteor swarms -or. as others suggest, the dashing of a solid body into a nebulous mass, a steady diminution of light after the first flash was what was to be expected. Why should it flare out again and again, though with diminished lustre? One' theorist suggests a sun so “far cooled, down as to have acquired a very thin outside crust, and some interna I commotion akin in kind to that which sent ‘Krakntoa into the air some years ago—bursting the crust and allowing the imprisoned gases tp flame out; this, it “is surmised, might be repeated several times before the forces became exhausted and the orbs, like an - eased volcano. settled down again into quietude. • Against this hypothesis there stands the objection that the spectroscope seems to say plainly that two distinct 'bodies, or groups of bodies, are concerned in the catastrophe. But it is all speculation. A 1 feasible-theory to account for the "Nova’s” appearance and behaviour is still wanting, v