THE GREAT NEBULA IN ORION, 8 1 



nebulae were distinctly resolved into stars- -a circum 

 stance which, as we shall see presently, renders his 

 description wholly inapplicable to the great nebula. 

 Yet the very star around which (in the naked-eye view) 

 this nebula appears to cling, is figured in Galileo s 

 drawing of the belt and sword of Orion ! 



It seems almost inconceivable that Galileo should 

 have overlooked the nebula, assuming its appearance 

 in his day to have resembled that which it has at pre 

 sent. And as it appears to have been established, that 

 if the nebula has changed at all during the past century 

 it has changed very slowly indeed, one can scarcely 

 believe that in Galileo s time it should have presented 

 a very different aspect. Is it possible that the view 

 suggested by Humboldt is correct that Galileo did 

 not see the nebula because he did not wish to see it ? 

 4 Galileo, says Humboldt, was disinclined to admit or 

 assume the existence of starless nebulae. Long after 

 the discovery of the great nebula in Andromeda- 

 known as the transcendently beautiful queen of the 

 nebulae Galileo omitted all mention in his works of 

 any but starry nebulse. The last-named nebula was 

 discovered in 1614, by Simon Marius, whose claims to 

 the discovery of Jupiter s satellites had greatly angered 

 Galileo, and had called forth a torrent of invective, in 

 which the Protestant German was abused as a heretic 

 by Galileo, little aware that he would himself before 

 long incur the displeasure of the Church. If we could 

 suppose that an unwillingness, either to confirm his 

 rival s discovery of a starless nebula, or to acknowledge 



