Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/314

310 and no permanent changes have yet been noted. Variable stars, on the contrary, are changing before our eyes; and they repeat their fluctuations continually. They present opportunities for discoveries of the greatest interest in themselves, and of remarkable utility in the study of the problem of stellar evolution.

It is a conservative statement that in nineteen variable stars out of twenty we have little idea as to the causes of variability. The causes of the variations have been determined in the case of Algol and a few others of that class: large dark companions revolve around these stars, and once in every revolution the companions pass between us and the principal stars, thus preventing a portion of their light from reaching us. In Zeta Geminorum and three or four others of its class the spectroscope has shown that massive dark companions are close to, and rapidly revolving around, the principal stars. These invisible companions produce disturbances in the extensive atmospheres of the stars, and cause the observed variations in brightness; but the nature of the disturbances is still a matter of conjecture. Omicron Ceti and other stars of its class have given no evidence of companions. Brightness variations in them seem to be due to internal causes. Perhaps they have reached the age when solid crusts attempt to form on their surfaces, just as one day a crust struggled to form on the liquid earth. A crust formed one month may be melted or sink to a lower level a few months later. Perhaps there are 'sun-spots' on these stars, in scale vastly more extensive and in period shorter than those on our sun; but these suggested explanations may be far from the truth.

For more than half a century a great many astronomers have devoted themselves assiduously to making photometric observations of variable stars. There are a dozen observatories, both large and small, which are systematically devoting some of their resources to this work. By common consent of the profession, or by appointment from learned societies, there have for some fifty years been individual astronomers, or committees of astronomers, who systematize results, call attention to the need for observations of certain neglected objects, and in many other ways encourage the photometric study of variable stars. Photometers are inexpensive, the methods are simple, and results have rapidly accumulated.

Observations of variable stars with slit-spectrographs, on the contrary, are surprisingly meager and fragmentary. Not a single institution, not a single telescope, not a single observer, is working continuously or even extensively on the subject. Yet the method is a very powerful one: the few isolated studies made on variable stars have led to results of remarkable richness. The subject is one of great difficulty. Photographic spectra require much time for accurate measurement and reduction. And, finally, powerful and expensive instruments are demanded.