Page:In the high heavens.djvu/35

 In conclusion it would seem that the sun and the whole solar system are bound on a voyage to that part of the sky which is marked by the star Delta Lyræ. It also appears that the speed with which this motion is urged is such as to bring us every day about 700,000 miles nearer to this part of the sky. In one year the solar system accomplishes a journey of no less than 250,000,000,000 miles. As you look at Delta Lyræ to-night you may reflect that within the last twenty-four hours you have travelled towards it through a distance of nearly three-quarters of a million of miles. So great are the stellar distances, that a period of not less than 180,000 years would be required before our system, even moving at this impetuous speed, could traverse a distance equal to that by which we are separated from the nearest of the stars.