WONDERS OF SPACE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 532, 12 June 1909, Page 12

WONDERS OF SPACE.

A JOURNEY TO THE FARTHEST . v : PLANET. Until recently Neptuno was supposed to Kβ; on the outermost boundary of tho.Bokr systorn ;inow wo are told th&t its'placo has been usurped by two hitherto unknown planots v One of theso is said to be forty-fivo.times , and the other sixty times .the distance of tie earth from the sun.- .'The outermost planet,, is therefore twice as far from the.sun.as the planet Neptune, whoso distance is estimated . at two billion eight hundred million miles. , We. can scarcely realise whit this actually . moans, says Miss Mary Proctor, unless we •'-■ make use of a familiar illustration, such aa . ( the time which would be required for a motor car going sixty miles an hour to coyer tWa stupendous distance . ' •',-.■.■ .■■■■■.■■• i - :■< Let us imagine a broad lerol road reaching from the sun to tho outermost' planet . Neptuiio, and tlie car proceeding in that direction at an average speed of a mile a minute without stopping night and day,_nntil it .. reached our planet cartn. • By this time one hundred and sovonty-five years would have elapsed. Continuing on its way to Neptune, it would not reach its destination until five thousand two hundred and fifty years later. Though tho occupants of Uio" car, hoary with ago, would long sinco Jiavo passed the allotted span of man's life on earth, yet wo can imagine them urging the chauffeur to continue the journey still further to the planet, which is some forty-five times tlio distance of tlio sun from the'earth. •

Pul/ting on full .speed; tho car plunges on» waul, tlio record on arrival at the planet boing seven thousand eight hundred and seventy-five years. A final spurt enables the chauffeur to cover the distance separating his party from "tlio outermost planot of all, and we caii imagine the car finally landing on the- outermost planet, some ton ■Uiousand five hundred years having elapsed sinco the I car started from the sun. On arrival at tlio r»lanot tlho travellers would find tlio merest glimmer of light from tho "sun, now some Qvc billion, five hundred and .eighty million miles distant, nttd.o. corresponding chilliness, compared with which the cold of cur Arctic regions would bo warm. Thi9 we argue from t!ho fact that from Neptune, which is only ono-hjlf the distance of tl\o now planet from the sun, the disc of the sun is only about one-hundredth of ours in apparent size, and in consequence t'ne solar light and heat received by this planet are greatly diminished. . Whether the two new planets are inhabited worlds is one of the problems to be ranked with the so-called caimls of Mars nnd other theories regarding; the. solar system, which havo so far taxed the inpsniity of nstronom. ers. Meanwhile wo await with interest fur. t'lier news of the newly-discovered realms in tlio solar system and wonder what the future will reveal as to their peculiar character:*, tics. ..■■.■■