THE NE W STAR WHICH FADED INTO STAR-MIST. 1 1 1 



adopt it the theory, namely, that in consequence of some 

 internal convulsion enormous quantities of hydrogen and 

 other gases were evolved, which in combining with some 

 other elements ignited on the surface of the star, and thus 

 enveloped the whole body suddenly in a sheet of flame. 



"The ignited hydrogen gas in burning produced the 

 light corresponding to the two bright bands in the red and 

 green ; the remaining bright lines were not, however, coinci- 

 dent with those of oxygen, as might have been expected. 

 According to this theory, the burning hydrogen must have 

 greatly increased the heat of the solid matter of the photo- 

 sphere and brought it into a state of more intense incan- 

 descence and luminosity, which may explain how the formerly 

 faint star could so suddenly assume such remarkable bril- 

 liance; the liberated hydrogen became exhausted, the 

 flame gradually abated, and with the consequent cooling the 

 photosphere became less vivid, and the star returned to its 

 original condition." 



According to the other theory, advanced by Meyer and 

 Klein, the blazing forth of this new star may have beer 

 occasioned by the violent precipitation of some great mass, 

 perhaps a planet, upon a fixed star, "by which the 

 momentum of the falling mass would be changed into 

 molecular motion," and result in the emission of light and 

 heat 



" It might even be supposed that the new star, through 

 its rapid motion, may have come in contact with one of the 

 nebulae which traverse in great numbers the realms of space 

 in every direction, and which from their gaseous condition 

 must possess a high temperature; such a collision would 

 necessarily set the star in a blaze, and occasion the most 

 vehement ignition of its hydrogen." 



If we regard these two theories in their more general 

 aspect, considering one as the theory that the origin of dis- 

 turbance was within the star, and the other as the theory 

 that the origin of- disturbance was outside the star, they 

 seem to include all possible interpretations of the observed 





