A NEW WORLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20108, 29 March 1928, Page 7

A NEW WORLD

FASCINATING THEORY South African Astronomer’s Discovery STARS IN COLLISION FRESH SOLAR SYSTEM POSSIBLE (By Telegrapti—Per Press Assn.—Copyright.) Received March 28, 8 p.m. (Sun Cable) CAPE TOWN, Mar. 28. The staff of the Union Observatory at Johannesburg record a remarkable observation last week.

Mr Bernard Dawson, of La Plata observatory, Argentina, reported the star Nova Pictoris looking strange, and he was unable to study it properly with the small telescope. He therefore asked Johannesburg to make an examination of it through its 264 inch telescope. This was done by various members of the staff, when, it was discovered that the star was split in two. Dr. Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal at the Cape Town observatory, states it is wrong to say the star is split in two. There are two stars now, and there were two stars before, although the world did not know’ chat. “Nova Pictoris,” ho said, “belongs to the class of star which blazes up rapidly in the course of a few days from below naked eye visibility to very brilliant. The state of the two stars now visible seems to show that they are due to collision between the two stars or a grazing impact of the two stars.” Dr. Jones judges the distance between. the two stars to be one-fifth of a second of the arc. He thinks it possible that this is the first direct evidence of collision or grazing impact of stars, and says: “The origin of our solar system is the direct result of an incidentally similar occurrence.

two days’ discussion at the Missionary an outburst in Pictoris, the constellation may condense into planets and form another solar system where life may evolve.”