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Show 1 Other World. By means of the spectroscoo a I very wonderful discovery has beeu j madu respecting Siriu. fW.roho-mers fW.roho-mers hod nutlcett that this star was ! in nund ftdtian through snai-t. nml was changing its position in the , heavens, traversing in aliout fifteen , ; hundred years a space iqual to the . apparent diameter of the moon, at a I velocity of no less than twenty miles j per second. Of course, by actual ob- nervation Uie only motion capable of j being detected would be that which j was square to the line of sight) so j that although Sirim appears to us j to mo vi ncn-s the heavens he may really be traveling In a slanting direction, di-rection, either totfard or from us. No om w'outd ever liave expected to be able to tell wheth-r a star was approaching to or receding from us, yet Mils seemingly insolvable prob-j prob-j kin has of late years Ien aucoiu-j aucoiu-j plisbed by the sjiectroscol. Dr. t iluggiiis, our greatest authority on J tills subject, having: identified cer-I cer-I tiin lines In Uie spectrum or Sirius 1 as those or hydrogen, found on com-j com-j pariscn that these.were displsctkl in sudi a maimer as to indicate that the star was nice-ling front us. It lias Iicen estimated Uiat this recession, recess-ion, combined with the thwart motion mo-tion of twenty miles jier second, gives as the actual movement of Sirius in space a speed or abjut Uilrty-three miles ier second. These then constitute some, or the chief items of Information about Sirius at present within our knowledge. Til ere teems to be no reason to uoult that, iu common witli oUier suns, he has his system of planets circling round him after the manner nf our sun; and what a system! Vast as ours appears, it Is dwarfed into insignificance in-significance compared with a sys- tsm whose ruling orb is five thousand thou-sand times larger than that which does duty for us. There seems, also, no reason to doubt that there planets arc intended to be the abode of life; it may I e that at Uie present moment mo-ment none of them present any signs cf life, but I think wo may safely inrer without improbability, that each one or those worlds has a destined jieriod In its development during which life, similar to that which now prevails on our planet, would be in existence. What a world such a one would be, in size Ierliaps not inferior to that of our sun, himself a million times larger than our earth; and it may be Uiat as Uiis Slrian world is so vastly superior to ours in size its inhabitants inhabit-ants would be on a scale iu pro)or-tion pro)or-tion to its dimensions, a race or beings be-ings or such intellect and clvilizi-tlon clvilizi-tlon compared with whom we are but savages. C7m4era Journal. |
