Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . xy. An English physicist has cleverly said that any really good theorybrings with it more problems than it removes. It is thus with theisland-universe theory. It is impossible to do more than to mentiona few of these problems, with no attempt to divine those which mayultimately be presented to us. While the data are too meager as yet, several attempts have beenmade to deduce the velocity of our own galaxy within the super-gal-axy. It would not be surprising if the space-velocity of our galaxy,like those of the spirals and t
Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . xy. An English physicist has cleverly said that any really good theorybrings with it more problems than it removes. It is thus with theisland-universe theory. It is impossible to do more than to mentiona few of these problems, with no attempt to divine those which mayultimately be presented to us. While the data are too meager as yet, several attempts have beenmade to deduce the velocity of our own galaxy within the super-gal-axy. It would not be surprising if the space-velocity of our galaxy,like those of the spirals and the Magellanic Clouds, should prove tobe very great, hundreds of miles per second. Further, what are the laws which govern the forms assumed, andunder which these spiral whorls are shaped ? Are they stable struc-tures ; are the component stars moving inward or outward ? A be-ginning has been made by Jeans and other mathematicians on thedynamical problems involved in the structure of the spirals. Thefield for research is, like our subject matter, practically A DETEKMINATION OF THE DEFLECTION OF LIGHT BYTHE SUNS GKAVITATIONAL FIELD, FEOM OBSEKVA-TIONS MADE AT THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF MAY 29,1919/ By Sir F. W. Dyson, F. R. S., astronomer royal, Prof. A. S. Eddington, F. R. S., and Mr. C. Davidson. [With 1 plate.]I. PURPOSE OF THE EXPEDITIONS. 1. The purpose of the expeditions was to determine what effect, ifany, is produced by a gravitational field on the path of a ray oflight traversing it. Apart from possible surprises, there appeared tobe three alternatives, which it was especially desired to discriminatebetween— (1) The path is uninfluenced by gravitation. (2) The energy or mass of light is subject to gravitation inthe same way as ordinary matter. If the law of gravitation isstrictly the Newtonian law, this leads to an apparent displace-ment of a star close to the suns limb amounting to (3) The course of a ray of light is in accordance withEinsteins genera
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