274 



DISCOVERY 



proper motions and has shown that it is of great 

 intrinsic \ brightness and travelling very rapidly. Dr. 

 Shapley accordingly reaches the conclusion that " the 

 cluster \'ariables of the galactic system appear to have 

 such abnormallv high \-elocities in space that the method 



parallaxes. The computed distances are in close agree- 

 ment with the figures reached by Dr. Shapley. Dr. 

 Wilson's investigation is therefore of considerable signifi- 

 cance, and his results are strongly confirmatory of Dr. 

 Shapley's estimate of the scale of the stellar system. 



\ 



THE GREAT CLUSTER (Mij) IN HERCt'I.ES. 



of computing mean distances used by Kapteyn and Van 

 Rhijn is of low weight." The average velocity of these 

 stars, Dr. Shapley states, is comparable with the average 

 velocity of globular clusters. " This may indicate that 

 many of the cluster variables of the galaxy were originally 

 members of the same extra-galactic cluster or cloud." 

 In a recent paper Dr. R. E. Wilson discusses the proper 

 motions of seventy Cepheid variables. From a study of 

 the known radial velocities of a few, Dr. ^^■iJson deduces 

 the velocity of the Sun relative to these stars, and from 

 their average peculiar motion he computes the mean 



A Near Stellar Neighbour 



The spectroscopic parallax of the fifth-magnitude star 

 Epsilon Indi has been determined at Harvard. The 

 distance deduced from this measuremtnt is seven lihgt- 

 years. If confirmatorv results are obtained, it will be 

 safe to conclude that this small star is one of our 

 nearest stellar neighbours. Recent research has shown 

 that in the region near to the Sun, and probably 

 throughout the stellar system, the dwarf stars consider- 

 ablv outnumber the giants. 



