OCR Text |
Show I To Study the Sun. Ls the sun growiug colder? Is its heat diminishing? Is it to be expected that, at some remote dny, the vivifying warmth which now sustuins abundant life upon tho earth will die out and that black, icy, silence atid death will settle down' over tho terrestial ball? Por the express purpose of answering these questions of such profound and vital importance to tho future of the human race a great and uniquo observatory ob-servatory has been established on tho summit of Mt. Wilson in California, writes Paul F. Foster in Technical "World Magnzinc. Tho funds for tho building and maintenance of this great observatory, with its now and tremendously tremen-dously powerful instruments, have boon furnished by the Carnegie Instltntion at Washington, D. C. While tho sun is 300.000 times nearer tho earth than any other known star, our knowledge of it is meagor and onhr ono of the twenty-two largo rofracting telescopes at the older observatories has attempted to make any systematic study of it.t Solar research undor the ideal conditions which prevail at Mt. Wilson should result in a marked increase in-crease of our knqwlcdgo of tho past, present and future of tho sun, and should throw light on the problems of the evolution of the stars, from nebnlao through successive stagC3 to that of a red star, which our sun will ultimately become. |