While the stars in general appear to travel independently of one
another, except when they are combined in binary or trinary systems,
there are notable exceptions to this rule. In some quarters of the sky
we behold veritable migrations of entire groups of stars whose members
are too widely separated to show any indications of revolution about a
common center of gravity. This leads us back again to the wonderful
group of the Pleiades. All of the principle stars composing that group
are traveling in virtually parallel lines. Whatever force set them
going evidently acted upon all alike. This might be explained by the
assumption that when the original projective force acted upon them they
were more closely united than they are at present, and that in drifting
apart they have not lost the impulse of the primal motion. Or it may be
supposed that they are carried along by some current in space, although
it would be exceedingly difficult, in the present state of our
knowledge, to explain the nature of such a current. Yet the theory of a
current has been proposed. As to an attractive center around which they
might revolve, none has been found. Another instance of similar
“star-drift” is furnished by five of the seven stars constituting the
figure of the “Great Dipper.” In this case the stars concerned are
separated very widely, the two extreme ones by not less than fifteen
degrees, so that the idea of a common motion would never have been
suggested by their aspect in the sky; and the case becomes the more
remarkable from the fact that among and between them there are other
stars, some of the same magnitude, which do not share their motion, but
are traveling in other directions. Still other examples of the same
phenomenon are found in other parts of the sky. Of course, in the case
of compact star-clusters, it is assumed that all the members share a
like motion of translation through space, and the same is probably true
of dense star-swarms and star-clouds.
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