TIIF, \I-W ASTKOXOMV. 

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l!v l'R()l"i:SS()K A. W. r.I(Ki:KT()X. 



I WISH to tluink Mr. O'Halloran for his letter on 

 the death of energy in the September issue of 

 " Knowlkdc.i:," in which he describes some of the 

 observational and logical evidence tending to prove 

 the theory of the third body. In contrast I may 

 quote the remark made a short time ago by one of 

 our ablest astronomers, who said : " I own your ideas 

 are very suggestive but necessarily incapable of 

 proof." This opinion is shared by other official 

 astronomers. Clearly such an opinion cannot be 

 held by those who have read the mass of evidence 

 published in " Knowledge " since August, 1911. 

 This alone is quite convincing; yet much of the 

 evidence now available has not yet appeared even in 

 " Knowledge" ; one amongst other reasons being 

 that some of it has been observed or made known 

 subsequently to the publication of those articles and 

 letters. This is especially the case with the 

 wonderful evidence furnished by Nova (ieminorum. 

 There are two fundamental oversights regarding 

 the New .Astronomy that seem to be made by almost 

 all astronomers. First, they look upon impact as 

 random and destructive ; whereas impact is brought 

 about by many agencies and produces definite 

 results often of amazing complexit}-. Hence impacts 

 are really a law of Nature, and constructive. Impacts 

 are probably one hundred thousand times as frequent 

 as mere random encounters of stars, situated as our 

 Sun is, would be. The other oversight of many 

 astronomers is the lack of realization on the one 

 hand of the thermodynamic intensity of the 

 phenomena of new stars, and on the other hand of 

 the calorific power of stellar impact. Nova Persei 

 was but a feeble star compared with other historic 

 examples. Yet at its maximum it had ten 

 thousand times the intensity the Sun would have, 

 were both seen by a being situated at the same 

 distance from either star. The Sun at three light 

 years' distance would present the appearance of 

 Nova Persei. Yet the pace of progression of the 

 flash of light that lit up the Perseus nebula shows 

 this nova to be three hundred light years awaj- : that 

 is when placed one hundred times as far away it was 

 as bright as the Sun would be at three light }-ears" 

 distance. 100'^ is 10,000: that is the comparative 

 intensity of Nova Persei in terms of solar units. 

 The Sun, if stoked by fuel, would require six 

 hundred times the known coal-fields of the Earth 

 per minute to keep it going. Hence as a bonfire 

 Nova Persei would require 600X10,000, or six 

 million times the known coal-fields of the Earth to 

 be burnt each minute of maximum to produce such 

 a blaze. Such is the energy of a nova. What is 

 that of grazing suns ? Were express trains meeting 



at three hundred miles a second, which is the speed 

 we may consider that two stars grazing meet at, the 

 collision would have three hundred and twenty-four 

 millions times the energy it would have were the 

 trains meeting at a mile a minute. The thermatol 

 or molecular kinetol, or heat energy of unit mass, 

 would be twenty-seven million degrees. A velocity 

 of three hundred feet a second is approximately the 

 mechanical equivalent of heat; thermatol is propor- 

 tional to velocity squared, hence three hundred miles 

 a second is clearly five thousand two hundred and 

 eighty squared times as great as the mechanical 

 equivalent: that is, over twenty-seven million degrees 

 thermatol. So a graze of suns exactly corresponds, 

 both in power and equivalent energv-, with the 

 observed data of Novae. The observed complex light 

 curve of Nova Persei, which was most completely 

 made, corresponds exactly with that dxnamicallv 

 deduced. The light curve of Nova Geminorum was 

 not able to be so well observed, vet a superposition 

 of the best observed curves shows that the light curves 

 of the two closely resemble one another. Whilst the 

 light curves of Nova Geminorum are not so good as 

 those of Nova Persei, the series of spectrograms 

 obtained are much finer. The Cambridge Spectro- 

 grams recentl}' shewn in the Library of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society are minutely perfect and full of 

 detail. Their details are confirmed by each character 

 being shown in many of the series. There is 

 not a physical or chemical fact disclosed bj- these 

 duplicated details but was deduced and published 

 a long time before the spectrograms were photo- 

 graphed ; whereas the perfection of these marvellous 

 spectra supplies physical data that pulverize and 

 blow, to the four winds of the heavens, everv fibre of 

 any known theory save that of the third body. 



These Novae demonstrate beyond any doubt the 

 fact that they are third stars grazed from colliding 

 suns. Yet Novae so constantly alike are only one 

 of the scores of celestial phenomena, equally striking 

 in the coincidence of deduction and observed fact. 

 Mr. S. N. E. O'Halloran's letter is chiefly devoted to 

 Steinmetz' article showing Kelvin's oversights in 

 coming to his idea of the death of energy. In 

 " Knowlkik.e " (December. 1911) I show some of 

 the agencies that deductions prove must act together 

 to produce an aggregation of primordial matter, 

 forming cosmic systems of the first order. In The 

 Phil. Mag. for August, 1900, I showed that the 

 configuration of our Galaxy suggests it to be made 

 up of a primordial and an old cosmic system inter- 

 penetrating. Kapteyn's statements show that 

 observation confirms this deduction. 



In " Knowlkih'.i: " for December, 1911, the 



