Evening Star Newspaper, December 30, 1923, Page 61

g \d . have ,on the sun, ¢ peratures ,‘entists -that the sun Put 5—8 Pages Knowledge o_f Universe Greatly Increased by Mt. Wilson BY HAROLD K. PHILIPS. BEKING the answer to that ever intriguing question — whence came we and whither are we traveling—a little band of sclentists has reached from the snow-capped peaks of California millions of miles out into the dim un- measured spaces of the universe, Wrung from the stars many. of their long hidden secrets, and now is en- gaged in the staggering achievement of imitating celestial proces: in a man-made labératary They are members of the world re- nowned staff of the Mount Wilson Ob-, servatory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Six thousand feet above Pasadena, day and night, they explore the heavens for a solution of the riddle of the ages, peeping through gigantic telescopes into spaces too vast for the human mind conceive, or dragging far-off | stellar bodies down in huge en-| larging mirvo; at pleasure, for! closer ! ren tive staf vets., they perch observation having some fiom the cap- funermost sevs mpering back | and millions of | turn to their | laboratory for proof of veracity kv chem lly or physically repro- Aucing there certain of the more im- portant facts it has disclosed. And, unknown to the world .at large, they worked some wonders fhat ctagger the imagination The origin of our own particular world is & question upon which mDUIl astronomers are agreed. It is gen-! erally aecepted that this planet and ! the other members of our solar sys- | tem, ages of time back. were Dl} i with the sun. part of that great va- porous mass of which the =un alone now remains a whirlin flaming, maseous ball But how was the earth formed? Through what sue- cessive stages did it pass in ite early lite7. How were it= constitutent | parts separated have the intensely ondensed ‘towurd a bhehind thos rotati <pheres which are the p solar system and their These are only a few of the ques- tions that are one with the still un answered problem—whither are we traveling. For traveling into space we are, an infinitesimal speck in onel of two great intersecting streams of st planets, and . tremendous heavenly spin-wheel led nebulae. masses of whirling, luminous gasses haside which our own world is smaller than a pin point in compari- von. At speeds !ar‘“ ng from abou®: three and a half miles @ second to as | much as about twelve miles a second, | our planet and the st » . floating | their of send it s million while they hot solar gases center, leaving revolving | anets of our| unknown goal toward ® % EFORE undertaking an expl of such an unfamiliar field? e anticipated by the Car- negie Institution those in charge of the project scoured the world for a} able place to build their observa- tory. Mount Wilson was selected be-y cause it offered more advantages than | any other site—long - periods of weather free from rain and with lit- tle cloud, a tranquil and steady at- mosphere, and a ready source of elec- trical current and upplies from | Pasadena for the physical laboratory,} which now plays so important & pm-tf in the work of the laboratory itself. Because of the prime intgrest in the sun as the source of light and heat on which we' all depend. and as our nearest star, the observatory was| conceived for solar yesearch. But the | necessity for seeking among the stars | and nebulae for evidence as to thei past stages of solar and stellar life made it necessary that the observa-{ tory secure the means of attacking the more distant objegts of the uni- verse. Hence, although the work ati Mount Wilson has centered on thej sun, its workers are seeking to reach the very borders of the universe it- self. Solar research has disclosed some astounding facts in the last few vears. The spectroscope, an instru- ment that analyzes a ray of light; the diffraction grating, an instrument of | highly polished metal ruled with some 15.000 lines to the inches the camera and the physical laboratory working together have virtually solved the mystery of sun spots and proved them to be temporarily cooled regions in the sun’s atmosphere, due to glgantic solar tornadoes. But how .was this problem attacked? First, a giant telescope brought the | sun down to the Mount Wilson Ob- servatory, where \ the spectroscops analyzed the spectrum, or gaseous constituents, of & sun spot. When the analysis had been completed the observers did not rely upon the ve-! racity of the spectroscope entirely, but proved the truth of their discov- eries by virtually reproducing in the laboratory certain conditions existing { For instance, iron was observed in the. spectra of the sun spot. To set- tle whether or not it really was iron the laboratory investigator took a band of iron wire and attached it to two poles some distance apart. Through this a tremendous electric current was discharged, with the re- sult that the wire exploded and form- ed vaporized iron—a miniature, man- “ made flash, like the sun, with an in- stantaneous ‘temperature of 20,000 degrees, or about three times that of the real sun. The spectroscope gave the same analysis for this gas, which wes known to be iron, and the spec- trum ~compared to that of the sun spots. The proof was indisputable. * %X % % URTHER studies led the -observ- ers to suspect that the temper- ature of the vapors in the sun spots had been reduced materially. To test this, an iron band was again vapor- ized and the action of this vapor was ¢ carefully observed and photo- graphed while under different te in an electric furnade. ‘When compared with the iron lines in & sun spot, the changes were seen 10 be of the same kind. . Idemtical tests applied to*the vapors "of chro- mium, nickel, manganese, titanium and other metallic élements, pre- viously identified in the spots, gave the same results. I3 thus became clear to the sci- pots actually. and by what px’ores>i satellites? 1. WASHINGTON 'MAGAZINE SECTION Sundy D.: O, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER , 30, 1923. Representatives of Carnegie lnstxtuhon of Washington, on Snow-Capped California Peak, Reach Out With Glant Tele- . scopes to Wring From Stars Their Long-Hidden Secrets and Imitate Celestial Processes in Laboratory—Mystery of Sun Spots Vlrtually Solved—They Are Found to Be Tcmporarlly Cooled Regwns mn Sun s Atmosphere. Due to Great Tornadoes. Magnetlc Effects Studied. A comparatively small part of the hw machines used telescope. to operate the Hoo Celestial lace-work. Jhis daseous cloud was discovered i the nebula dydnus A spinwhee! of the Heavens. ¢ piralnebuse $ottte of which are 500 1ignt years iu diameter they may be stars in the early gtades. T Targest tolescc are regions:of reduced. temperiture | in solar atmospliere, solar storms re- sembling 'a /férrestrial tornado, in’ which the . hot' vapors, wlhirling ‘st high veloaity, are coolkd by .expan-* slon. . The prpsence of powerful mag- netic felds” in these-spots, some of which - recently - serlot lmerterxd with -eléotrical - apparatus - qn planet, ‘yet ‘remained to. be proveq For ‘a-third' time: the iron " band was exploded,-but-this time between the poles of a powerful magnet, and again’ its spectruim ™ wds photo- phed, . The._lines in the spectrum were found ‘to be- shattered into three, four, five and six. parts, and this ‘one chromium line was resolved by | the magnet into twenty-one: com- onents.. “Thus, through . three. suc-| sun spot. ‘Later. tests resulted’ln tbe : T , Hook.sr beie scggg fi%%fi%wlfl?& {{He"rise - and : development ‘of the. obsefvers easily deriving the strength phatogfaphit telescope. and. the ap- ot the magnetic fleld 1n.sun, spote Studies ut Mount -Wilsonshave ajso discloged- that:the gaseous. sun ~do not ‘rotate Iike.” the solid. earth, on’| which’points in all latitudes complete |1n_the & rotation - in. twenty-four hours. . It [and| powerful ‘instruments lav plicatfon: of the spectroscope: to 'the tudy, ofiicelestial, objects., Supple- mented.by. many accessoriss, which In the, case: of Mount Wilson -are made observatory ‘shops, these new ot turns. giore and-more slowly near, the |! only" revealed-a vastly greater num- m(ulng mom nfldly‘ than 1h0 higher or lower latitudes.* Suppoke the same thing. wers. rth. By way-of il< E n astronom. nville; ‘which essive ‘stages,. sclence Imitated - in| ;n' b GEY AR its. laboratory~ the: phenomens. o Bsiwa) greats ber -of stars and nebulaé, :but have made possible observations that scien- [ tists say. weére formerly regarded as R RN r MHE chemical: analysis of-a faint tar-is' now 80 easy that it can be accomplshed “in-'a ‘very, short time— a8 “quickly, In. fact, as -an - egually cohiplex substance_can be afialyzed in <& chemical l.shonhry. and even its distance’from the earth, ai'e detérmined. by the spectroscope, together with 'thé speed at which the (sun .and .nebulae ‘rotate, and the fact that the entire sun, like the earth, is < magnet. ' . “But let us-leave-the- laboratory: | and “the earth=—to soar millions and millions ‘of miles out into space ‘with one of these.master photographers, ‘and | there -gaze in. awesome .wonder upon this marvelous display of celes- tial -pyrotéchnics, The. naked eye, | searching the heavens from pole to pole, would-not be able 'to detect .more than' 5,000 to 6,000 stars. .The glant telescopes at Mqunt Wilson re- veal to us hundreds of millions of ;| them. ‘They have.pushed the boun- daries of the universe far beyond’the Photograph of the Sun, showing the sun- spots wmcu c&wScd an auroras in’ May 1921, crippling the electrical lintes onthe earth end, the Very border of everything, basg not yet ‘been attained. ‘We find:stars clustered together. in ‘the shape ‘of globes—globes so large. that light traveling at the rate of '186,000 miles a .second, ‘would take 500 years'to cross one of them. We may even gaze upon objects that are 200,000 1ight years from our earth. Yet the glant 100-inch Hodker tele~ scopé atop Mount Wilson quite read- ily brings them down to earth for us to: inspect. More than-a niilion spiral nebulae, vast Whirling’gasses,- which may be stars. i their earliest stage of evolu- tion, come within view, - The sizes of them, of the stars to be observéd, beggar description. - Our sun, beside which the earth is like a pea, is 36! 000 miles in diameter. Now try to Arcturus, which has been found to be 21,600,000 miles; or = Betelgeuse, which is 215,000,000 miles in diameter, or - still_ better, Antares with’ a di- ameter of 400,000,000 mlles. One" of the most recent and.most important discoveries made at Mount ALtison is the ‘fact that the -spiral nebulae are not “island universes, but whirling masses in the process of development. Slawly they . con- tract through 1oss of heat by radia- tion until,, it is supposed, they be- come planets like our own. Such, it is Dbelieved, is the fate of our own sun. Stlll gaseous, though now den- ser than water, it cortinues to pour out the heat on which our existance depends, although gradually shrink- ing towards its ultimate condition of i wmm nnn(muon of: m.w-bwm ‘compare. this 'mA the: diameter 0f, & cold and _darkened. globe. . . Research VWHAT are described as some of the most remarkable phenomena to be discovered by the modern tele- scope are the “new” or temporary stars, which burst out into sudden brillancy, only to fade gradually into extréme faintness. With the sixty- inch reflector at Mount Wilson it has been possible to photograph spectra of some of these interesting heavenly specters. Some appeared several years ago and already are very faint An explanation for the sudden bright- ness of these temporary stars, ad- vanced by a member of the Mount Wilson staff, is that they are faint stars suddenly plunged into gaseous nebulae. Recent observations have given rise to the belief that eventu- illy they revolve out of the swirling gas and-again fade back to their dimmer state. What has already been said of the imitation of solar phenomena in the pliysical laboratory is also true of stellar phenomena. The telescopes of e Mount Wilson observatory. especially designed with the aims of the physicist and chemist in view bring images of sun, stars, nebulae and other heavenly bodies withi reach of powerful spectroscopes. sensitive barometers, thermopiles and other appliances available for the measurement and analysis of radi- ation. | Then its electric furnaces, arcs sparks and vacuum tubes, its ap- paratus for increasing and decreas ing pressure, varying chemical con- ditions, and subjecting luminous gases and vapors to the influence of electric and magnetic flelds, provide the means of tating celestial phenomena and interpreting observa- tions at the telescope. The physica laboratory has definitely removed much of the uncertainty with wh the agtronomer once was obliged lattack his problem, a contribution that has enabled him to forge ahea {in his ceaseless endeavors with gre | er success than would otherwise | possible. Thus s man esploring the he { ens almost at will. Whether or { his romantic travels will eventuall lead him down the trail to a solu- {tion of the riddle of evolution re- mains to be seen. But that his re- searches will have a practical value to the world cannot be doubted, and already highly worthy contributions to the progress of civilization and the relief of distressed humanity have resulted. On this side of research one astronomer said “The constitution of matter is question of the greatest practical con Already the bLy-products investigations directed toward fts’ elucidation have been useful’ in the hightst degree. Helium, the gas that will make possible the Shenandoah's flight to polar regions, is -one; X hardly require mentzion, radium { which has so materially aided ferers from cancer, is still known. Wireless telephony ‘and transcontinental telephony with wires both rendered _possible by “studies of electric discharge { vacuum tubes. Thus the ‘practical map, with his distruct of ‘pure’ science, need not resent investments made for the pur- pose of advancing our kiowledge of such fundamentals as physics and chemistry. On the contrary, if true to his name, he should help to mul- { tiply them many fold in the interest of economic and commercial devel- opment.” im cern. better were | Looking Through Metals. | W/ERY thin films of certain metals become transparent at heats not nearly sufficientpto melt them. For instance, if we fakesa sheet of gold leaf somewhat thinner than the paper on which this is printed and heat it by an electrical current to tempera- ture of about 2,400 degrees Fahren- heit it will become as translucent as a pane of green-colored glass. It carefully kept from drafts very much finer sheets of gold leaf can thus be heated by clamping them on frames of marble or slate and applying the current throughy the metal strips which clamp each end of the sheet When this is done with gold leaf of about one-hundredth the thickness of ordinary ‘paper and the curreat is gradually increased until the temper- ature reaches 2,000 degrees Fahren- heit the leat becomes not only trans- lucent, but transparent, so that it is actually possible to see through it For apparently the same reason sil- ver foil, which requires only 2,250 de- grees to make it clearly transparent, shows a bluish-violet tint. Copper foil has also been made transparent in this way, but remains so only for a short time, as it combines with the oxygen of air when thus heated, and the resulting compound is not trans- parent. A Wonderful Road. () VERLOOKING Los Angeleg, Callr., is one of the world’s most re- markable mountain roads, extending from Laurel canyon to the summit of Lookout mountain. While just wide enough for one. vehicle, the road is perfectly safe for automo- biles, as it is bullt to ascend by one route and descend by another. The curves, hairpin turns, switchbacks, etc., are numerous. but.all built so scientifically that there is no danger. The road is carved from -the sife of a hill which is so precipitous that in one place there are six levels “ris- ing one above the other, all visible from the same point; in fact. the hill appears to be terraced with the zig-2ag of hizhway. The surface is of decomposed granite amd the out- side edge has been fenced with stout timbers. From the summit—occupied by & summer hotel—one. has & view that is without a rival on the Pacific coast. The ocean is but a few miles distant, with the Santa Catalina and San Clemente islands on the horizon, while along the shore are the score of towns-and resorts built upon the sands. About thirty cities and towns are visible from the summit, with Los-Angeles almost directly belows ’