| Show I Found One Million New Universes 1 I By DAVID DIETZ N NEA EA Service Writer MT WILSON Cal Cat March 16 Our universe Is only one of many existing in the vast stretches of space There are a million universes within the range of the great inch telescope here at th the Mt l Nilson Wilson VII Nil son observatory the largest telescope telescope telescope tele tele- scope In the world It is impossible ible to tell how many universes would come within the range of oC an even larger telescope I It be may may be that the number of universes universes universes uni uni- verses In existence is Infinite literally literally liter liter- ally alY stretching out through space forever fot The largest of these universes measured measure so far tar is about one- one seventh the size of or the universe in which our sun and earth are are situ situ- But there Is no reason for or supposing that this Is th the larg largest st one MAY BE LARGER UNIVERSES There may be universes out in space as large as our own and even larger largel These facts the most amazing which have been brought to light lightn in n modern astronomy were unearthed unearthed unearthed un un- un- un by Dr Edwin Hubble a member of the Mt 1 Wilson staff Of Ot course there had been pr preliminary preliminary pre pre- 1 work in this direction But it remained for Dr Hubble to clinch the matter by direct observation The stars which shine In the heavens constitute our universe At first astronomers thought this was all that existed But later they found that the stars constituted a system confined to a certain portion portion por per tion of space while other objects lay far out in space beyond this system or r universe of ours These objects are the so-called so spiral nebulae The They are invisible to the naked eye but in the telescope telescope telescope tele tele- scope look like whirling spirals of luminous cloudlike material PROVING THE SPECULATIONS There was much speculation I about their nature Finally some 1 astronomers astronomer suggested that these nebulae might be other universes of stars which were so far away that they appeared to be condensed Into luminous cloudlike stuff Now Dr Hubbe Hubble has proved that that Is actually the case He 1 turned the big inch telescope telescope tele tele- scope on the outer portions of the nearest of these spirals and took photographs with exposures of seera several sev se- era eral I hours The resulting photographs photographs photographs photo photo- graphs showed that the outer arms of the spiral were actually composed composed com corn posed of stars The inch l-Inch telescope differs from the more familiar sort of oC telescope telescope telescope tele tele- scope in that It has a mirror at the bottom of ot the tube instead of or a a lens at the top The observer Instead of ot looking into an eyepiece at the bottom of the tube looks hooks Into an an e eyepiece set In the side of the tube at Its top The telescope Is called the inch be because Duse the mirror Is Inches in diameter A FOOT 45 TUBE The mirror weighs four foul and a half hof tons It Is set at the tha bottom oi oia of ofa tube of ot a forty foot work open-work steel The tube mirror and other parts which have to be moved as as' as the telescope Is used sed weigh tons The fhe telescope stands In the centen center center cen cen- ter ten of a a. a great a-great great dome which Is feet high The observer stands Ona on ona ona a platform which Is hung from the top of or the dome Motors move this platform so that when the he telescope is pointed at an object the platform can be brought alongside the telescopes telescope's telescopes telescope's telescopes telescope's tele tele- scopes scope's top to permit the observer to look Into the eyepiece And so as the motors pointed the great telescope and moved the platform platform platform plat plat- form across the great dome Dr Dr- Hubble discussed these distant uni uni- verses The nearest t of these universes es is s hundreds of thousands of light years rears away he said That Is they hey are so far tal away vay a that it takes the he light from them hundreds of thousands of years ears to reach us The speed peed of ot light Is miles per second Only a handful of them are are near enough to analyze in detail but It Itis Its itis is s fair fah to assume that the others othel's resemble them In general but are farther arther away aay JUST LIKE THIS UNIVERSE In analyzing these near ones I I find find ind the same sort of thing which Is s found in Ir our own universe of ot stars For example there are the same sort o of giant blue stars and I the he same sort of variable stars I 5 v By comparing the brightness s of stars in the nebulae with that of ot similar stars in our own s system we can estimate the distance of these universes from our own We Ve find tind hat that the average di diameter diameter diameter di- di ameter of these universes is about light years and that there are are less than of them within three million light years ears of our Own wn universe uni uni- verse As I have said there are a million million mil mu- lion of them within the range of ol this big telescope The outermost ones of this million are eighty million million million mil mil- lion light years away What is beyond those eighty million light years we do not know I S |
