Notices of the proceedings at the meetings of the members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain with abstracts of the discourses . bySaturn, which is ten times as far away as we are, takes 80 the Sun were suddenly put out we should not know it for eightminutes, since we should still receive light during that time whichhad started on its journey before the extinction ; and Saturn would 380 Professor H. H. Turner [June 5, receive light for 80 minutes, so that we should still see Saturnshining with reflected sunlight for more than an hour after the Sunhad gone out. If the Sun were
Notices of the proceedings at the meetings of the members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain with abstracts of the discourses . bySaturn, which is ten times as far away as we are, takes 80 the Sun were suddenly put out we should not know it for eightminutes, since we should still receive light during that time whichhad started on its journey before the extinction ; and Saturn would 380 Professor H. H. Turner [June 5, receive light for 80 minutes, so that we should still see Saturnshining with reflected sunlight for more than an hour after the Sunhad gone out. If the Sun were suddenly set ablaze again, we shouldbe illuminated eight minutes afterwards, but it would be more thanan hour before we saw Saturn. Now suppose that we were at a great distance from the solarsystem, in a direction perpendicular to the planes of the planetaryorbits, and that the Sun, originally dark, were to flame up suddenlyto great brightness for one minute only, as Nova Persei did. Thenafter eight minutes we should see a speck of light appear where theEarth happened to be, or if there were, instead of a single Earth, a Saturn. Sun Sz £ St number of small earths scattered round its orbit, we should see a ringof light instead of a speck; and the illuminated ring would last justone minute and then disappear. After 80 minutes we should seeSaturn as a speck of light, or again if we suppose him spread roundhis orbit, we should see this wider ring. If there were enoughintermediate planets the appearance would be that of a continuallyexpanding ring of light, similar to the expanding ripple when a stoneis thrown into water. It is not the water which expands, but thewave motion, and so it is not, in the case of Nova Persei, actualmatter which is exploded outwards, but illumination which lights upsuccessively matter which was already there. The supposition is 1903.] on the New Star in Gemini. 381 that all round Nova Persei there is one of those dark nebulse of whichwe have spoken, and
Size: 1589px × 1571px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorroyalins, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookyear1851
