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Show THB FAMOUS PLEIADES, YTliJ The; Ar. lailleaUrly Intartln to the A.lronoin.r. The problems pretcuttJ by the group ot stars known ns the Pleiades nro among tho most interesting in oslron omy. It can have boeu no mere chance that has massed them from among their fellow-stars Men of ordinary eye-sight tea but a half dozen distinct objects In the cluster, those of neuter vision can count fourteen, but It Is not until wo apply the ipare-penetrat-Ing power of the telescope thnt we realize the extraordinary scale upon which the system of the PMades U constructed With tho Paris Instrument Instru-ment Wolf In 1676 catalogued (125 stars In the group, nnd the photographic survoy of Henry In 1887 revealed nn less than 2 3.16 distinct star within and near tbo filmy gauze ot nebulous matter always so conspicuous a fen turo of tbe Plelsdra The Pleiad stars are among those for which no measurement meas-urement of distance has yet been mude, so that we do not know whether they are all equally far away from us. W see them projected on tbe dark background back-ground ot tbe celestial vault, and can not tell from actual measurement whether they are all situated at tbe same point In space, but we may conclude con-clude on general principles that tbe gathering of so many objects Into a single dost astemblago denotes community com-munity ot origin and Interests The Pleiades then really belong lo one another. an-other. What It the nature of tbslr mutual tie? What Is tbelr mystery, and can ws solve It? Tbe most obvious ob-vious theory Is, of course, suggested by what we know to be true within our own solar system. We owe to Newton New-ton the beautiful conception of gravitation, gravi-tation, that unique law by means of which astronomers have been enabled lo reduee to perfect order tbe seeming tangle ot planetary evolutions The law really amounts. In e fleet, to this All objects suspended within tbe vacancy va-cancy ot space attruct r pull one another an-other How they can do Ibis without a visible connecting link Ulwirii them. Is a mystery that may always remain unsolved Hut mystery as It Is, we must mccpt It ns nxcertalned fnct It Is this pull ot grnvltatluu that holds together tbo sun and tho planets, fore Ing them all to follow out their proper paths Uby should nut this same gruvltatluoal attraction bn at work among the Pteluilea? If It Is, we must suppose that they, too, bavo bounds and orbits set unit Interwoven, revolutions revo-lutions and gyrations far more complex com-plex than the solar system knows. The visual discovery of mull motion uf rotation ro-tation among the I'lehdes may be called one of ths pressing problems of astronomy today We feel sure that tbe time It ripe, and that the discovery discov-ery Is actually being made nt the present pres-ent moment for a gencrntlon of men Is not loo rreat period to call a moment mo-ment when we have In deal with cosmic cos-mic time -New York Post |