CHAPTER IV.SPACE.
If all the stars that we now see in space were once fire-mist, there must have been another region equally large filled with some substance of a temperature 600° below zero, in order to equalize the heat of the fire-mist and leave space 300° below zero, as it now is in the vast region that surrounds existing stars.[10]What must that cold of 600° have been, for what is that of 300° even when water freezes at 32° above zero and mercury at 30° below! Where that cold space was we know not, neither do we know what was in space before the fire-mist.[11]
If the nebular theory will sufficiently account for the throwing-off and cooling of the planets, will it likewise account for the millions of suns disseminated throughout space? In the first place, let us suppose that all these suns were made at the same time and filled space with the same substance as our earth, only in a diffused state. Insuch a case I cannot conceive how it could break up and resolve into stars, for there being no space to turn in all would revolve together. The pulp within the rind of an orange could not be cut into circles and caused to revolve inside of that rind; so fire-mist once filling the immensity of space must have continued to revolve in an unbroken mass. Secondly; If the stars were formed at different periods of time should not many be still forming? whereas space appears wondrously clear. We would think if all this great space were to-day filled with nebulae composed of material similar to that of earth, we could not see; for our vision of the heavens would be obstructed thereby, and we should know nothing about the countless numbers of stars that, with the aid of the telescope, now make the very heavens to blaze with light. Why is it that the space about all, or nearly all, of the suns has thus cleared if a state of fire-mist is common to all of them? It is true Nebulae are seen that appear like vast fields of dim light, but they are often resolved into stars when examined with powerful instruments, and the nebulae that cannot be thus resolved into suns occupy but a small portion of the heavens. Less than one cubic foot is now left out of the 147,200 millions of cubic feet in every cubic mile of fire-mist that the sun’s sphere must have contained when it reached out to the planet Neptune, and what has become of it all? If it is not in our system it must have gone into others. Again; if among the stars that we now see there are a million, or even a thousand times as many dark bodies as luminous ones, they must in a measureobstruct the light of the glowing suns. But were this known to be true it would not prove that these bodies were not originally formed dark objects; and who but an omnipotent and omniscient Ruler could prevent repeated collisions among them?
The nebular theory accounts only for our own solar system, and yet all the stars that we see in the heavens can be no less wondrous than our own flaming sun. That we see their light even, at so great a distance, is proof that they can be no less great. We must account, then, not only for our own planetary system, but for the countless millions that exist; and we must concede that the laws that govern one would, presumably, govern every one. Hence, a period of fire-mist for one implies the same for all.
If the distance from our sun to the next nearest sun is 20 trillions of miles, a sphere whose radius reaches half way, that is ten trillion miles, could contain eight sextillions of suns, each with a diameter of one million of miles. Now let a single grass seed represent one of these suns, and twenty-seven millions of them one cubic inch. Should we fill a bin one mile long, broad, and high, with such seeds, there would yet be more suns in the above sphere than it would take of grass seeds to fill this bin holding seven sextillions of them. When we think that each grass seed is to represent a sun two million times larger than our earth,—for each sun with a million of miles diameter would,—the thought of the contents of such a sphere is overwhelming.
Professor Mitchell tells us that with a telescope light from distant nebulae can be seen that has been thirty millions of years on its journey. Let us imagine a sphere with a radius of one million years of light’s flight at the rate of twelve million miles per minute, viz., six quintillions of miles. A sphere of such a radius would contain as many spheres of ten trillions of miles radius as one could put cubic inches in 850 cubic miles, or 216,000 trillions. This sphere could hold as many suns of one million miles diameter as there might be grass seeds that would cover a million of earth’s for one mile in depth, each earth containing on its surface 200 millions of square miles, and every cubic inch thereof representing 27 millions of grass seeds. When we think that each seed represents two millions of earths can we comprehend the greatness of the universe? Remember the same calculations that enable us to determine the number of cubic feet in our earth, sun, or any other sphere, bring these astounding but certain results. And when we further remember this space is every where so clear and powerful that it transmits light at the rate of over eleven million miles each minute, enabling us to see in every part of the heavens the wonderful stars at an immense distance; and that if we bring to our aid the most powerful telescopes they only tend to magnify the already vast number of stars; we are led to realize that beyond all things else we can conceive space is the most astonishing and wonderful, excepting its great Creator. While some think that the sun is cooling and all its planets willbe affected thereby, and refer to the destruction and instability of earthly things; where is there a single atom of this inconceivably vast, vibratory space that reveals the least change or destructiveness, although it must have existed for millions of ages.
Sir Robert S. Ball has given a very marked illustration of the wonderful magnitude of space in his late book entitled “In the High Heavens,” from which we quote as follows: “Summon up to your imagination the most distant star that can be seen with the unaided eye. Then think of the minutest star that our most potent telescope can disclose. Think of the tiniest stellar point of light which could possibly be depicted on the most sensitive photographic plate after hours of exposure to the heavens. Think, indeed, of the very remotest star which, by any conceivable device, can be rendered perceptible to our consciousness. Doubtless that star is thousands of billions of miles from earth; doubtless the light from it requires thousands of years, and some astronomers have said millions of years, to span the abyss which intervenes between our globe and those distant regions. But, nevertheless, there is a certain number of miles, even though we know it not, at which the remotest stars known to us must lie. I do not speak of the most distant star which the universe may possibly contain; I only refer to the most distant star that we can possibly bring within our ken.
Imagine a great sphere to be described with its centre at our earth, and with a radius extending all the way from the earth to this last star knowable by man. Every starthat we can see, every star whose existence becomes disclosed to us on our photographs, lies inside this sphere; as to the orbs which may lie outside that sphere we can know nothing by direct observation. The imagination doubtless suggests with irresistible emphasis, that this outer region is also occupied by stars and nebulae, suns and worlds, in the same manner as the interior of that mighty sphere whose contents are more or less accessible to our scrutiny. It would do utter violence to our notions of the law of continuity to assume that all the existent matter in the universe happened to lie inside this sphere; we need only mention such a supposition to dismiss it as wholly indefensible. I do not now make any attempt to express the number of miles in the diameter of the sphere which limits the extent of space known directly to man. What that number may be is quite immaterial for our present purpose. But the point that I especially want to bring out is that the volume occupied by this stupendous globe, which includes within it all possible visible material, must be but a speck when compared with the space which contains it. Think of the water in the Atlantic Ocean, and think of the water in a single drop. As the drop is to the Atlantic Ocean so is the sphere which we have been trying to conceive to the boundless extent of space. As far as we know it would seem that there could be quite as many of such spheres in space as there are drops of water in the Atlantic Ocean.”
Now with this defining of space it is evident that it matters but little what the material substances of the universemay be. If the hundreds of millions of bright suns—which are thought to be few in proportion to the invisible, dark worlds scattered throughout space—are but as a single drop of water to all the Atlantic Ocean; then we are compelled to admit that our earth and sun, and even the great host of luminous orbs, must be of little consequence beside this infinitely vaster and more intensely active ether.
It behooves us above all things, then, to inquire what this amazingly great space may be. Let us quote further from the above author: “Every particle of matter whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, is composed of molecules. No doubt these molecules are so numerous that even in the air we breathe the capacity of a lady’s thimble would contain a multitude of molecules so great that it has to be enumerated by billions.” Again, “The air is ultimately composed of myriads of separate particles. Each of these little particles, no matter how quiet the air as a whole may seem, is in a state of intensely rapid movement. Picture to yourself incalculable myriads of little objects, each dashing about with a speed as great as that of a rifle bullet, and often indeed far greater. The little particles are so minute that it would take about fifty millions of them, placed side by side, to extend over a single inch. The smallest object which we can discern with a microscope is perhaps one hundred-thousandth of an inch in length. The little gaseous molecule would therefore require to possess a diameter about five hundred times greater than that which it actually has if it were to be large enough to admit of inspection by the utmost microscopic powerswhich we can bring to bear upon it. And yet, notwithstanding the fact that these particles are so extremely minute, we are able to reason about their existence, to discover many of their properties, and to ascertain the laws of their action in such a way as to throw light into many obscure places of nature. I do not, indeed, know any doctrine in modern science of a more instructive character than that which teaches us the composition of gases.” If this be true of air what then can be said of space, or ether, in which all worlds float as easily as the motes in a sunbeam; that space which transmits light everywhere with a precision that never varies? And what is light, indeed, but vibrations of ether from 400 trillions to 800 trillions per second, giving all the colors from violet to red? There is not an atom of ether in all space, so far as science can detect, that has ever ceased to vibrate, or ever will, with the startling rapidity above expressed.
But, to further illustrate the magnitude of space, let us again take the flight of light as a basis for our calculations. As there are 525,600 minutes in a year, light—moving at the rate of eleven millions of miles each minute—must travel in one year 5,781,600 millions of miles. With that number of miles as radius of a sphere, of which earth is the centre, the diameter will be 11,563,200 millions of miles, and the surface of the sphere 401,112,000 quintillions of square miles, while it will possess a volume of about 800 undecillions of cubic miles. Dividing this number by the 260,000 millions of cubic miles that earth contains we have 3,000 septillions, the number of earths thatsuch a sphere could contain. Now in an ocean 5,000 miles long, 3,000 miles broad, and 3 miles deep there will be 45 millions of cubic miles, or 250 trillions of inches. Allowing 200 drops of water to each cubic inch, we have in one cubic mile 50 quadrillions of drops, and in that ocean 2,250 sextillions of drops of water. Dividing 3,000 septillions—the number of earths in the above sphere—by the number of drops of water in the ocean, we find we would need 1300 such oceans to furnish enough drops of water to equal the number of earths that could be placed in a sphere whose radius is but the number of miles that light travels in a single year. With a radius equal to one hundred years of light’s flight a sphere might contain as many earths as there would be drops of water in 1300 millions of such oceans; while a radius of light’s flight for 100,000 years could hold as many earths as there were drops of water in 1300 quadrillions of such oceans, or a number of oceans equalling the drops of water in 26 cubic miles. Again, in amillionyears of light’s flight there might be as many earths as drops of water in 1300 quintillions of such oceans, or the number of oceans equalling the drops of water in 26,000 cubic miles.
If a sphere with a radius of light’s flight for but one year could contain 3,000 septillions of bodies like our earth, and yet that sphere be but an atom in space, it would seem that space might beinfinitein its extent, with our conception of infinity. But if space isfiniteand light, after a flight of a million of millions of years, reaches its utmost bound; then that light, if still existing and radiating 400 trillions of vibrations each second, can double that timeand return. For if not cooled in a million of millions of years the supposition is that it will not cool in twice that time.
Still, again, let us conceive of a sphere, but this time with a radius—not oftenmillions of years of light’s flight, which would contain as many earths as drops in 1300 quintillions of such oceans, a number equalling more than half the drops in an ocean that contained 45 millions of cubic miles—but we will take less than ten minutes of light’s flight with a radius of 100 millions of miles, which is a little more than the distance from the earth to the sun. We find that this sphere would contain 15 trillions of earths; a number ten thousand times greater than that of all the people living upon earth. When we think that each one of those earths would contain 260,000 millions of cubic miles it is seemingly all that our minds can well grasp.
We may not know how many millions of years each atom of ether has been in existence, but probably before any worlds ever floated within it; and how can we conceive the thought of death in this immensity of space where there is not the slightest indication of subsidence or decay? We must remember that this ether is a million times more active than air and possesses energies that we cannot conceive of in the more solid substances of the spheres. Then, whether the nebular hypothesis of the cooling of the sun and worlds be right or wrong, we may not detect it from any evidence that space gives thereof; and we can but believe that, if it be a fact, it must be so only because He who formed this wondrous space has in their destinyan object. The Eternal Presence may give to this vast, eternal space a glow that needs not the light of sun, moon, or the shining host of stars, even though all these mighty orbs that we now behold should be plunged into everlasting darkness.
In order to better comprehend the mighty vastness of this space we will measure it again into units of 260,000 millions of cubic miles, (the size of earth), and with a radius based on the number of miles of light’s flight in minutes, days, months, and years, ascertain the number of different sized spheres that such radii would form. A sphere with earth as its centre, and a radius of one minute of light’s flight, would contain 21 billions of earths; a sphere whose radius wasnineminutes would contain 15,310 billions of earths, one of an hour’s radius 4,500 trillions, one of a day’s 62 quintillions, a week’s 20 sextillions, a month’s 1675 sextillions, and a year’s radius of the flight of light three octillions. To go still further; 10 year’s radius of light’s flight would contain three nonillions, 100 year’s three decillions, 1,000 year’s three undecillions, 1,000,000 year’s three quattuordecillions, and a thousand million years radius would contain three septendecillions of such earths. Now to compare these great numbers we will suppose, as before, that there are 200 drops of water in one cubic inch, making 50 quadrillions of drops in one cubic mile of water, 50 quintillions in one thousand cubic miles, 50 sextillions in one million of such miles, 50 septillions in one thousand millions, and 50 octillions in one million millions of cubic miles.
We need go no further for the immensity of space is seen by comparison of the earths in the above spheres with the number of drops of water in all those cubic miles. We find the sphere that has but one day’s flight of light as a radius will contain more earths of 260,000 millions of cubic miles each, than there are water-drops in 1,000 cubic miles; or, in other words, as many drops as there would be in 100 Sounds like Long Island from Bridgeport to New York, allowing those sounds to average 100 feet in depth and each contain ten cubic miles of water.
The thought so astounding and well nigh inconceivable is that a sphere of such vast dimensions has only a radius of a single day’s flight of light, light that starting from its centre would pass the circumference of the sphere in one day; while a sphere with a radius oftenyear’s flight of light—a distance only a little way beyond the nearest known star in the northern heavens, 61 Cygni—could contain as many earths as there are drops in 60 millions of millions of cubic miles. Yet a sphere with that radius of ten year’s flight would cover such an enormous quantity of space as to be beyond our comprehension and still be of no consequence in comparison with the spheres of one hundred, one thousand, one million, or one thousand millions of years radii.
Why I thus compute 1,000 millions of years of light’s radius is because it is possible with powerful telescopes to detect light coming that distance; and when we contemplate that our nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is twenty trillions of miles distant, and 61 Cygni more than twice asfar,—orsevenyear’s flight of light,—and that the Polar star is some fifty years of light’s flight removed from us; then, if all suns are no nearer to each other than these are to our sun, we are led to believe we may see light with our unaided vision that has been on its journey for a million years. Some detect with the naked eye the light that comes from the nebula in the Sword’s-Handle of Orion, which is thought to contain two trillions, two hundred billions of stars; and if all these stars are no nearer to each other than Alpha Centauri is to our sun, it cannot be otherwise than that some of them are so distant their light may have been travelling for a million years before it comes to our sight. If this be true, with telescopes that penetrate a thousand times farther into the heavens, we may possibly see light that has been on its voyage to earth one thousand millions of years. But the number of earths a sphere of 1,000 millions of years of light’s flight would contain makes the number of drops of water in sixty millions of millions of cubic miles (equalling but the earths in a sphere oftenyears radius) sink into utter insignificance. And yet a sphere of this dimension, even, may be small beside the whole universe of ether whose every atom in all the millions of years past, as far as known, has not in the least diminished its wonderful energy; and, with lightning-like transmission, still brings to our sight light from distant stars, all of which are so distant that they do not materially increase the present flow of light. For if but a single one were to come between us and the sun the increase of that light and heat would be unendurable.
Finally, as space thus surpasses everything in its greatness excepting its Creator, let us contemplate it once again in the following manner. Suppose we could create 40,000 millions of cubic miles of ether daily; we would at the end of the week have an amount equalling the volume of our earth. If we continued that creation daily,—not for hundreds, thousands, or millions of years even,—but for 1,000 millions of millions of years, we should then have as many such volumes of ether the size of earth as there are drops of water in one cubic mile. But what of all this? Admitting that we could create bodies as fast as our earth was made, and continue to do so for 1,000 millions of millions of years, it would still be of little account; for its insignificance is seen when we remember it is but one-fifty-eight thousand millionth part of what a sphere would contain with a radius of one year’s flight of light. To think of 40,000 millions of cubic miles being created daily, with the process continued for 1,000 millions of millions of years, andthatvast quantity still further expanded 58,000 millions of times, would seem the extent of greatness itself and beyond all human realization. Yet we can still say all this would be of slight consequence, for it represents a sphere whose radius is but one year of light’s flight, and that sphere compared to one of 1,000 millions of years radius is no more than a boy’s marble,—with a radius of but one-fourth of an inch,—to earth whose radius is 4,000 miles, and a thousand million times larger than the radius of the marble.
We have endeavored by the above comparisons to show the vastness of space; and although our efforts must bein vain because of our inability to comprehend such great figures, still it is pleasant to contemplate this ether, upon which time has so little effect, because man is mortal and the 1500 millions of people that pass from earth every 33 years makes it seem to him that death reigns everywhere. But when we consider that the only things essentially effected by time are the animal and vegetable kingdom, and that all men now living could occupy about one-fifteenth of one cubic mile of earth; we see that death, even in the animal kingdom, is confined to a few cubic miles, and to but a few more in the vegetable kingdom. The inconceivable millions of millions of cubic miles in a sphere with a radius of one million years of light’s flight is in no manner affected, as we perceive, by the dread power that we recognize in the dissolution of mortal bodies.
Even these bodies, as we understand, are changed only in the combination of molecules, and by that change the immortal spirit, that is as imperceptible as the wind, of which we are told we cannot tell “whence it cometh nor whither it goeth,” is set free; the Bible teaching us its eternal destiny. The greatest and best things that men here possess are love and goodness, and should not the Almighty possess these virtues beyond any of His creatures? Possessing these how could He otherwise than send to Earth His Son for their salvation from sin; for we find men here, even, who are willing to peril their lives for the salvation of their fellows, and would undoubtedly be kind to an inferior animal, though an ant or worm, had they created it and knew it loved and worshiped them.Akin to this, we believe, is man’s relation to his Creator and the Creator of this mighty and seemingly everlasting Space.
FOOTNOTES:[10]For example: Take two rooms and heat one as hot as the sun now is what must the cold in the next room be to equalize the heat to 300° below zero?[11]We do not inquire how the original nebula came into being; our history must commence with the actual existence of this nebula. There is, let it be confessed, a great deal of obscurity still clinging to the subject. Though we may be sure, that the great nebula once existed we cannot with much confidence trace out the method by which the planets were actually formed.Sir Robert Ball, “In Starry Realms,” p. 348.
[10]For example: Take two rooms and heat one as hot as the sun now is what must the cold in the next room be to equalize the heat to 300° below zero?
[10]For example: Take two rooms and heat one as hot as the sun now is what must the cold in the next room be to equalize the heat to 300° below zero?
[11]We do not inquire how the original nebula came into being; our history must commence with the actual existence of this nebula. There is, let it be confessed, a great deal of obscurity still clinging to the subject. Though we may be sure, that the great nebula once existed we cannot with much confidence trace out the method by which the planets were actually formed.Sir Robert Ball, “In Starry Realms,” p. 348.
[11]We do not inquire how the original nebula came into being; our history must commence with the actual existence of this nebula. There is, let it be confessed, a great deal of obscurity still clinging to the subject. Though we may be sure, that the great nebula once existed we cannot with much confidence trace out the method by which the planets were actually formed.
Sir Robert Ball, “In Starry Realms,” p. 348.