THE POETRY OF SCIENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2711, 15 January 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE POETRY OF SCIENCE.

EVIDENCES OF IMPACT.

(By Piofessor A. W. Bickerton.)

Noav, you Avill say, if double stars were Av-ecided by impact they should be variable, and they should be nebulous. Many are both, but avc- must remember that the union of stars is an inseparable one, Avhiist the- scars of their conflict Avill heal and the nebulous matter Avill settle down to cosmic dust and perchance become planets. So only the younger double stars will be variable and nebulous. —Variable Double Stars. —

The older ones Avill be colored, and the mature pairs will he ordinary suns, whilst of the old pairs one Avill generally be dead before the other, as in the case in the Demon star Algol, and Avlien both are dead! they might as Avell be buried as far as the earth is concerned, for it is probable we shall never know of their existence. But the young Avodded stars are doubly variable and are nebulous. Hcrschel says the association of double stars and nebula is remarkable, and Struve tolls us that he has proved that t\\ T cnty-threo double stars are A’ariahle and suspects forty more. Gore, in a letter to me, doubts the var. lability of double stars, but, before posting his letter, lie made a casual investigation and actually found three to be variables, and told me so in a postscript. There is much more confirmatory evidence, spectral and otlionvise, but let this roffice. Clearly, then, as already shown, on grounds of action of physical forces, impacting- dead suns and vivid stars must generally produce new stars tin. Avill explode into lioHoav shells of gas, that is, into nlanetary nebula. Astronomers of Yerkes and Lick ObsorA'atories tell us jicav stars do actually explode, and Professor Barnard and others tell they do actually become planetary nebulae. Physical reasoning tells ns that a partial impact of suns must produce A r ariable stars that must, for a timfc, be in pairs, and a research founded on the published lists proved this to be an absolutely demonstrated fact. Reasoning further suggests they should often bo nebulous, and they often are, and, further, that this nebulous light should be at a maximum at tho star’s minimum, and it actually is so. Consideration of the-.attractions acting after the impact tells xis the tA\'o Avoundcd suns must often be Avedded into pairs that will at first be variable and nebulous, and astronomers tell us that the association of double stars and nebulae is remarkable, and that they are thousands of times more variable than ordinary stars. ( A study of'the character of the spectrum that nrast be produced by the graze of suns, anticipated definitely such a complex and abnormal spectrum that if this one complex forecast Avas confirmed this clone AA’ould be sufficient to establish the theory. Thirteen years after this spectrum Avas described the instruments of astronomers Avere so improved that this very spectrum Avas obserA’ed in Nova Aurigae, and has been recurrent in every new star since seen. Yet- this is only a- tithe of the total evidence, and when, on the other hand, no scientific man has shown a flaw in the deductions and scores on scores ha\ r e admitted their soundness, and when men of the calibre of Lord Kelvin called it “a most beautiful correlation,” “a remarkable theory” and “a magnificent conception,” is it not time< for peonle to aAva'ke from the dream that this vast and comprehensive generalisation is but “a silly fad,” and its originator, Avho Avas the senior scholar of England’s foremost scientific school, and who actually originated the London Technical Classes- is, consequent on this fad of cosmic evolution, unfit to instruct the youth of a small colonial city in the elements of science. This dream is not merely retarding celestial research, but is, as already shown, alloAVing men to Avallow in the slough of illogial pessimism, instead of arising and buckling on the armour of sound logic, aud saving men from the tragedy of dispair, of killing anxiety, and of the pain and misery of the anarchic present. I avouM that some thinker Avoukl sound - the clarion call that should arouse men from their slumbers, and aAvake an enthusiasm for high ideals and noble deeds. "Why, as Avas well asked in the conference in the Ministerial rooms, Avliy, in this scientific age, should it be necessary to sit down a century before Ave recognise a great generalisation- Even though it Avere the custom of the dead past, Avhy should it be continued in the lhring present? And I echo the question: Why, indeed ? But men slumber, or are held in the nightmare of the dread present Avith its sweated industries, its little children that are toiling that insane Avasters shall have coin to pay for special trains for invalid pug dogs or to have the companionship of ribbon-decked SAvine, Avallowing on Oriental carpets, Avhile being fed Avith the choicest dainties of an epicurean feast. Let us lea\’e these delirious dreams, and again pursue our journey in the realms of the real. THE SORTING OF ATOMS.

Once more our wanderings will take us to the minute mechanism of atomic structure and motion and the sorting of atoms. It would take more than two hundred of the light hydrogen atoms to* tip the scale containing a single atom of lead. It would take sixteen to balance one of oxygen, and four to balance one ob helium; and this difference of weight induces us to the fairy realm of the real. Some of the atomic loves, friendships, and frolics we told of at the starting of our journey. Let us, in imigination, plunge amidst the countless myriads of minute particles that are in the protruding tongues drawn from the flying suns, -and that, will strike in an instant. All the atoms are astir, already heated by the friction of strain. All are in intense excitement, dancing rapidlv. but they'are terribly crushed together. Most of them dance in groups as wedded molecules, but they hustle one another, and as the parts of the dead suns are, doubtless, now fused, the molecular groups move past one another, pushing their way through the dense mass. Now comes the impact. Each striking atom hits its fellow with hundreds of millions of times the energy that striking atoms of a colliding express train possess. This tremendous forward: motion of mass is converted into motion of atom. Every compound molecule is shattered into its constituents, every atom loses its grasp on its fellow atom, and every atom acquires the same speed, but only for an instant. Before the-' met hydrogen was moving. far more swiftly than other atoms, and it soons gains its old ascendancy. Hydrogen and lead meet, but the heavy lead atom scarcely feels the blow and rushes on, while hydrogen flies back, with increased speed. It is as though a cricket ball lias been struck by a swift bat, so some of the energy of the lead hat has cone to the ball of hydrogen ; and ia this way all the atoms clash and strike until each has the same energy, and an equal mass of hydrogen has sixt~n- times the energy of a similar mass of oxygen.

The hydrogen is moving four times as fast and Avitli sixteen times the energy ?pf oxygen. So in the neAV star the atoms, fly and'strike and exercise a pressure ten thousand times that of exploding dynamite. Perhaps many of the atoms themselves aro knocked to pieces. Recent researches suggest so. But that, at prsent, is not in the realm of the real, so Ave Avill say no more about it. Under this pressure tho outrush of tho newly-formed mass gives Avay and tho fiery globe expands and expands a- million miles an hour, tho atoms still seething, pushing, and struggling to ~et free, and those on the outside soon arc free, Ilyin- aAvay from the seething mass. But hydrogen is. four times as fast as oxygen, and more than a dozen times as fast as lead, so quickly an atmosphere of hydrogen gas surrounds the gloAving globe. Still, the general mass seeths and struggles, and gives the continuous spectrum of qn incandescent light; but-, as the vast globe groAVS bigger and bigger it decreases but very little in temperature for some days, and so the great blazing mass gives more and more light. But presently the outer thinner layer of hydrogen Avould give dark lines on tile spectrum, soon, however, to become bright. As the hydrogen atoms escaped the mass their flames became an import, ant part of the luminosity and betweon the tivo events here would bo a? continuous spectrum. But- the third body is spindle-shaped and its ends Avill he free atoms. Let ns imagine a feAV days to liaA'e elapsed. All tho atoms have struggled free. Tho outermost hydrogen atoms are a thousand million of miles from the centre, the helium half the distance. the oxygen one quarter of the distance, Avhile the heavy atoms are hopelessly left behind in the outward rush, so that practically a planetary nebula should be a series of concentric lioHoav globes of gas. And this is Avhat astronomers Avere told more than a quarter of a century ago, and they are noAv just beginning to recognise the fact, and to tell ns that not merely one but most planetary nebulae slioav this kind of structure.