Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/489

Rh apertures in order to determine for ourselves what the colors of the components are. There is considerable diversity of opinion on this point. Some say the larger star is pale red and the smaller light blue; others consider the color of the larger star to be greenish, and some have even called it white. The magnitudes are five and nine, distance 6″, p. 350°.

Auriga contains several noteworthy clusters which will be found on the map. The most beautiful of these is 1295, in which about five hundred stars have been counted.

The position of the new star of 1892, known as Nova Aurigæ, is also indicated on the map. While this never made a brilliant appearance, it has given rise to a greater variety of speculative theories than any previous phenomenon of the kind. Although not recognized until January 24, 1892, this star, as photographic records prove, made its appearance about December 9, 1891. At its brightest it barely exceeded magnitude four and a half, and its maximum occurred within ten days after its first appearance. When discovered it was of the fifth magnitude. It was last seen in its original form with the Lick telescope on April 26th, when it had sunk to the lowest limit of visibility. To everybody's astonishment it reappeared in the following August, and on the 17th of that month was seen shining with the light of a tenth-magnitude star, but presenting the spectrum of a nebula! Its visual appearance in the great telescope was now also that of a planetary nebula. Its spectrum during the first period of its visibility had been carefully studied, so that the means existed for making a spectroscopic comparison of the phenomenon in its two phases. During the first period, when only a stellar spectrum was noticed, remarkable shiftings of the spectral lines occurred, indicating that two and perhaps three bodies were concerned in the production of the light of the new star, one of which was approaching the earth, while the other or the others receded, with velocities of several hundred miles per second! On the revival in the form of a planetary nebula, while the character of the spectrum had entirely changed, evidences of rapid motion in the line of sight remained. The nebulous speck which represents all that is left of Nova Aurigæ has not yet (February, 1895) faded from sight.

But what was the meaning of all this? Evidently a catastrophe of some kind had occurred out there in space. The idea of a collision involving the transformation of the energy of motion into that of light and heat suggests itself at once. But what were the circumstances of the collision? Did an extinguished sun, flying blindly through space, plunge into a vast cloud of meteoritic particles, and, under the lashing impact of so many myriads of missiles, break into superficial incandescence, while