Man's Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds, 3rd EditionWallace, Alfred Russel
Science
Man's Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds, 3rd Edition
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Life; Plurality of worlds; Stars
Sir Norman Lockyer gives facts which tend in the same direction. In an
article in _Nature_ of November 8th, 1900, he says: 'We find that the
gaseous stars are not only confined to the Milky Way, but they are the most
remote in every direction, in every galactic longitude; all of them have
the smallest proper motion.' And again, referring to the hottest stars
being equally remote on all sides of us, he says: 'It is because we are in
the centre, because the solar system is in the centre, that the observed
effect arises.' He also considers that the ring-nebula in Lyra nearly
represents the form of our whole system; and he adds: 'We practically know
that in our system the centre is the region of least disturbance, and
therefore cooler conditions.'
These various facts and conclusions of some of the most eminent astronomers
all point to one definite inference, that our position, or that of the
solar system, is not very far from the centre of the vast ring of stars
constituting the Milky Way, while the same facts imply a nearly circular
form to this ring. Here, more than as regards our position in the plane of
the Galaxy, there is no possibility of precise determination; but it is
quite certain that if we were situated very far away from the centre, say,
for instance, one-fourth of its diameter from one side of it and
three-fourths from the other, the appearances would not be what they are,
and we should easily detect the excentricity of our position. Even if we
were one-third the diameter from one side and two-thirds from the other, it
will, I think, be admitted that this also would have been ascertained by
the various methods of research now available. We must, therefore, be
somewhere between the actual centre and a circle whose radius is one-third
of the distance to the Milky Way. But if we are about midway between these
two positions, we shall only be one-sixth of the radius or one-twelfth of
the diameter of the Milky Way from its exact centre; and if we form part of
a cluster or group of stars slowly revolving around that centre, we should
probably obtain all the advantages, if any, that may arise from a nearly
central position in the entire star-system.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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