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
'Crossing the equinoctial at the 19th hour of R.A., it next runs in an
irregular, patchy, and winding stream through Aquila, Sagitta, and
Vulpecula up to Cygnus; at Epsilon of which constellation its continuity is
interrupted, and a very confused and irregular region commences, marked by
a broad dark vacuity, not unlike the southern "coal-sack," occupying the
space between Epsilon, Alpha, and Gamma Cygni, which serves as a kind of
centre for the divergence of three great streams; one, which we have
already traced; a second, the continuation of the first (across the
interval) from Alpha northward, between Lacerta and the head of Cepheus to
the point in Cassiopeiæ whence we set out, and a third branching off from
Gamma Cygni, very vivid and conspicuous, running off in a southern
direction through Beta Cygni, and _s_ Aquilæ almost to the equinoctial,
where it loses itself in a region thinly sprinkled with stars, where in
some maps the modern constellation Taurus Poniatowski is placed. This is
the branch which, if continued across the equinoctial, might be supposed to
unite with the great southern effusion in Ophiuchus already noticed. A
considerable offset, or protuberant appendage, is also thrown off by the
northern stream from the head of Cepheus directly towards the pole,
occupying the greater part of the quartile formed by Alpha, Beta, Iota, and
Delta of that constellation.'
To complete this careful, detailed description of the Milky Way, it will be
well to add a few passages from the same work as to its telescopic
appearance and structure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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