END OF THE WORLD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4190, 29 May 1939, Page 3

END OF THE WORLD

THEORIES AND FACTS. WHERE SCIENTISTS DIFFER. In the sky are innumerable, shrivelled stars, cold and dead and useless. Once by a process of radioactive disintegration, they were suns which heated and lighted their small sections of the universe. Every secsond, relatively minute parts of their substance were transformed into radiant energy which shot out into space. Our sun is such a star, and the fiery, gaseous heart of our system. Whatever happens to it affects life on earth. That it is slowly dying is a certainty. Billions of years hence it will give up its last ounce of energy and leave this planet a barren rock. Closer to us is the fact that unexpected factors may any day intervene to disrupt the placid course of the sun. Answers to the question: “What will the end of the world be like,” are now being given by the Hayden (Planetarium in New York City. There the curator, Dr Clyde Fisher, and his associates daily explain to curious crowds four of the ways by which celestial perturbations may bring to us slow or sudden death. Fantastic as these theories may be, they have all been formulated by such famed astronomers as Sir James Jeans, Sir George Darwin and Doctor Harlow Shapley. They are:— (1) Lunar disintegration, or what will happen if the moon falls toward the earth. The pull on the near face of the moon will be far greater than that on the far side. The difference between the two forces will shatter the moon before it reaches us. Some fragments may hit the earth. The others will revolve round us, forming a gigantic ring similar to that which circles Saturn.

At the same time, attraction of the moon will open up belching volcanoes on the earth. Buildings and even mountains will be bowled over by tremendous earthquakes. All life will be eradicated. This theory is based on the fact that the earth is now slowing down and the moon receding. Al a certain point the equilibrium between earth and moon will be so disturbed that the moon will reverse its direction and come closer till it finally breaks up, about 6000 miles away. (2) Solar Fade-Out. The energy released by the sun is decreasing. Ini a few million years everyone will wear fur-lined clothes. Lakes and oceans will freeze up. Immense blankets of ice will creep over continents as they , did at the start of the Ice Age. Men and women will live in subterranean habitations, cultivate ever poorer crops, starve to death. (3) Solar Flare-Up. Men and women will tear off their clothes and gasp for breath if the heat output of the sun suddenly becomes hundreds of times greater. This supposition is no empty dream. From time to time peaceful astronomers gazing through their telescopes at stars millions of light years distant become highly excited. That is when they see some star suddenly brighten into a flaring Nova. These Novae are caused by

the speeding up of the life rate of stars. Mass is converted into energy in these stars with the violence of exploding dynamite. Such an explosion on the part of the sun will come unexpectedly and last a few hours or maybe a few days. This flare-up will scorch all vegetation, sear the earth’s surface, make the oceans boil. Then the sun will either die off and become a cold star, or return to its previous peaceful form of life. By that time there will be no life left on earth.

(4) Nowadays the earth follows a very regular path through space. At any moment, however, some cold celestial body may shoot earthward out of another corner of space. If this body has greater gravity puli than the earth, it will start tugging at us. Due to tidal influence, human beings will be snatched from the earth as by a tornado and will shoot-faster and faster out into space toward the intruding body. A second or two later heavier objects will follow them, trees and buildings will be torn from thg surface of the earth. Finally the pull will become so great that at least part of the earth will break away into millions of pieces.—“ Life,” U.S.A.