GIANT TELESCOPE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 135, 5 December 1938, Page 3

GIANT TELESCOPE

PROBLEMS AWAIT IT

THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE

When California's •_ giant 200-incH telescope is completed,-* sometime in 1940, one of its first assignments .will be to determine whether, our universe is really expanding like a giant soap bubble with the outermost galaxies and nebulosities travelling away from us at tremendous speeds, or whether it is after all, stationary, writes Herbert B. Nichols in the "Christian. Science Monitor." This is a question growing out of v . astronomical observations that show light coming from galaxies in the far , regions of space to be shifting toward the red end of the spectrum. This has been likened to the whistle of a locomotive which increases in pitch as it approaches but "howls down" as it disappears in the distance. Just as the locomotive whistle howls down as it • travels away, so does the light of distant galaxies act when viewed through the world's greatest tele- , scopes. : Even in- the 100-inch telescope at Mt. Wilson, it is impossible to break down nebulae, some of. which are 500,000,000 light years away, into individual stars, but "it is possible to estimate their numb er, size, and weight by their emitted light. It may be, however,-that a new fundamental of physics is required to account for the red shift 'of\ distant, nebulae. Perhaps light becomes tired in travelling so far, and like long-dis-tance runners, if the race is too .long, it drops out. Researchers holding to this explanation argue that starlight shifts because the photons or light particles tire and - eventually vanish* UNIVERSE BLOWING UP? The strange part of the whole problem is, that when the apparent speed of the distant nebulae are measured, all but our own local group, seem to be receding from us, the more distant ones going faster, some reaching a velocity of 26,000 miles a second—un- ' believable, but thoroughly in accord with the dynamic theory of Abbe Le- S " maitre who postulated a universe that is blowing up. Astronomy today is inclined to accept this view, the other possibilities being Einstein's original static universe, and de Sitter's empty cosmos. Of course, no velocity is actually measured. What is observed is th_at the spectral lines due to the. white heat of elements which make up the stars are shifted from their normal positions—always toward the red end of the spectrum—and the more distant the nebulae, the greater the shift. Thfe problem was first stated mathematically, by Dr. V- M. Slipher, of Lowell Observatory, who published about five years ago a list of observations showing that red shifts .increase with distance, that they are equal.to distances times a mathematical constant. Since then the list of observations has more than trebled through activities of Dr. Edwin Hubble and Dr. Milton Humason,' of Mt. ■ Wilson, using the world's largest reflector combined with the very fast spectrographic lens developed'by Dr. W. B. Rayton, of Bausch and Lbmb Optical Company. A NEW FUNDAMENTAL. Dr. Hubble, whose, preliminary reconnaissance of the problem was completed two years ago with publication of his book, "The Realm of the Nebulae," is open-minded. At the moment he is inclined to seek out a new fundamental of physics which w.ill explain the shift without postulating that' it is due to the "tailrlights" : of worlds disappearing in the distance. Further • support of a stationary universe was stated by Dr. Harlow Shapley; of Harvard Observatory, last spring, when he announced that examination .of galaxies surrounding the south galactic ■ pole indicates such an uneven distribution that there are 50 per cent, more galaxies in one quadrant of the sky than in the- quadrant diagonally opposite. Apparently, this would not agree with the theory of an explosive universe, since expansion would necessarily involve more or less even distribution. Dr. Hubble sums it up in this way, "If the loss in energy occurs in the nebulae, then, red shifts, are due; to velocity and the nebulae are all receding. If the loss occurs in space, then the nebulae are stationary and light loses energy by some unknown mechanism, in proportion to the distance it travels through the universe.";; The whole question is probably the most debated subject in astronomy" to- • day, but all agree that the 200-inch telescope will probably supply,- the correct answer to the interpretation of the shifts. Meanwhile, the very evenness with which accleration appar? ently increases with distance avray from our small corner of the universe causes one to view with suspicion any theory that places us at the centre of• things. Copernicus and those who followed after him blasted the ancient theory that the earth was circled daily by the sun, moon, planets; and s^ars. Today, even our sun is recognised to be but one insignificant or comparatively small, medium temperature star, way over in one corner of the galaxy we call the Milky' Way. Even, the Milky Way, its stars forming a flat watch-shaped body something like 200,000 light years in diameter,,can at best lay claim to junior, membership in a universe of several hundred million other galaxies just like itself. , Perhaps, after all, the expanding universe theory wil turn out to be a last remnant' of the ancient Ptolemaic system placing the earth at the. centre of the universe. \

OLD CHARIOT FOUND

At Adria, a little Italian village near the sea, an old Etruscan chariot com* plete with all its equipage has been found underneath the sand, which forms part ot the soil even to this day, and which is thought to. have enveloped the chariot when in full course hundreds of years ago. On.either side of the chariot were found the skeletons of two horses of huge proportions, certainly larger than are known to exist today. In the body of the chariot was the skeleton of a woman richly attired in bracelets, rings, spangles, and other articles all made of gold. A little further away from the spot the digging party came across another skeleton, that of the driver,, who had obviously been thrown out when the chariot wal swallowed up in the shifting sand. Ht still held the reins in his hands. All the remains have been taken to th#f local znuaeonu *. [ J