Distant glimpses; or, Astronomical sketchesW. Pickering, 1837 - 190 |
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Popularne fragmenty
Strona 147 - In such instances, the larger star is usually of a ruddy or orange hue, while the smaller one appears blue or green, probably in virtue of that general law of optics, which provides that, when the retina is under the influence of excitement by any...
Strona 153 - Uranus and Saturn about the sun; and the correspondence between their calculated and observed places in such very elongated ellipses must be admitted to carry with it proof of the prevalence of the Newtonian law of gravity in their systems, of the very same nature and cogency as that of the calculated and observed places of comets round the central body of our own.
Strona 177 - They have, as their name imports, exactly the appearance of planets ; round or slightly oval disks, in some instances quite sharply terminated, in others a little hazy at the borders, and of a light exactly equable or only a very little mottled, which, in some of them, approaches in vividness to that of actual planets.
Strona 167 - ... ten or twenty thousand stars, compacted and wedged together in a round space, whose angular diameter does not exceed eight or ten minutes ; that is to say, in an area not more than a tenth part of that covered by the moon.
Strona 152 - This remarkable law of variation appears strongly to suggest the revolution round it of some opaque body, which, when interposed between us and Algol, cuts off a large portion of its light. " It is,
Strona 152 - It is," says Sir J. Herschel^ " an indication of a high degree of activity in regions where, but for such evidences, we might conclude all lifeless. Our sun requires almost nine times this period to perform a revolution on its axis. On the other hand, the periodic time of an opaque revolving body, sufficiently large, which would produce a similar temporary obscuration of the sun, seen from a fixed star, would be less than fourteen hours.
Strona 94 - Many doubted, many positively refused to believe, so novel an announcement ; all were struck with the greatest astonishment, according to their respective opinions, either at the new view of the universe thus offered to them, or at the high audacity of Galileo, in inventing such fables.
Strona 167 - It would be a vain task to attempt to count the stars in one of these globular clusters. They are not to be reckoned by hundreds ; and on a rough calculation, grounded on the apparent intervals between them at the borders...
Strona 159 - In such numbers, the imagination is lost. The only mode we have of conceiving such intervals at all is by the time which it would require for light to traverse them. Now light, as we know, travels at the rate of 192000 miles per second. It would, therefore, occupy 100000000 seconds, or upwards of three years, in such a journey, at the very lowest estimate.
Strona 153 - The phenomena we allude to are those of temporary stars, which have appeared, from time to time, in different parts of the heavens, blazing forth with extraordinary lustre ; and after remaining awhile apparently immovable, have died away, and left no trace.