Beta Lyræ consists of two bodies, gaseous in their nature, which revolve round each other, so near as to be almost touching. They are of unequal size. Both are self-luminous. By their mutual attraction they are drawn out into ellipsoids. The smaller body is somewhat darker than the other. When we see the two bodies laterally, they are at their brightest. As they revolve, however, we see them more and more end on, and thus the light diminishes. At a certain point one begins to cover the other and hide its light. Thus the combined light continues to diminish until the two bodies move across our line of sight. Then we have a minimum. At one minimum, however, the smaller and darker of the two bodies is projected upon the brighter one, and thus diminishes its light. At the other minimum, it is hiding behind the other, and therefore we see the light of the larger one alone. This theory receives additional confirmation from the fact, shown by the spectroscope, that these stars are either wholly gaseous, or at least have self-luminous atmospheres. Some of Professor Myers’s conclusions respecting the magnitudes are summarized as follows: The larger body is about 0.4 as bright as the smaller. The flattening of the ellipsoidal masses is about 0.17. The distance of centers is about 1-7/8 the semi-major axis of the larger star, or about 50,000,000 kilometers (say 30,000,000 miles). The mass of the larger body is about twice that of the smaller, and 9½ times the mass of the sun. The mean density of the system is a little less than that of air.[F] [F] ‘Astrophysical Journal’, Vol. VII, January, 1898. It should be remarked that these numbers rest on spectroscopic results, which need further confirmation. They are, therefore, liable to be changed by subsequent investigation. What is most remarkable is that we have here to deal with a case to which we have no analogy in our solar system, and which we should never have suspected, had it not been for observations of this star.