But, whatever may be associated in the nebula with the glowing gas which we see, the total amount of matter, invisible as well as visible, must be very small, or rather its average density must be very small, for the space occupied by such a nebula as that of Orion is so great that if the average density of its matter were equal to that of air the resulting mass by its attraction would exert a sensible effect upon the motion of the sun through space. The brighter parts of this nebula as seen from the earth subtend an angle of about half a degree, and while we know nothing of its distance from us, it is easy to see that the farther it is away the greater must be its real dimensions, and that this increase of bulk and mass with increasing distance will just compensate the diminishing intensity of gravity at great distances, so that for a given angular diameter--e. g., half a degree--the force with which this nebula attracts the sun depends upon its density but not at all upon its distance. Now, the nebula must attract the sun in some degree, and must tend to move it and the planets in an orbit about the attracting center so that year after year we should see the nebula from slightly different points of view, and this changed point of view should produce a change in the apparent direction of the nebula from us--i. e., a proper motion, whose amount would depend upon the attracting force, and therefore upon the density of the attracting matter. Observations of the Orion nebula show that its proper motion is wholly inappreciable, certainly far less than half a second of arc per year, and corresponding to this amount of proper motion the mean density of the nebula must be some millions of times (10^{10} according to Ranyard) less than that of air at sea level--i. e., the average density throughout the nebula is comparable with that of those upper parts of the earth's atmosphere in which meteors first become visible. 218. MOTION OF NEBULÆ.--The extreme minuteness of their proper motions is a characteristic feature of all nebulæ. Indeed, there is hardly a known case of sensible proper motion of one of these bodies, although a dozen or more of them show velocities in the line of sight ranging in amount from +30 to -40 miles per second, the plus sign indicating an increasing distance. While a part of these velocities may be only apparent and due to the motion of earth and sun through space, a part at least is real motion of the nebulæ themselves. These seem to move through the celestial spaces in much the same way and with the same velocities as do the stars, and their smaller proper motions across the line of sight (angular motions) are an index of their great distance from us. No one has ever succeeded in measuring the parallax of a nebula or star cluster. [Illustration: FIG. 148.--A part of the Milky Way.]