Page:The evolution of worlds - Lowell.djvu/51

Rh Being dark, it must have cooled to a solid, and its density therefore be much greater than the Sun's, probably something like eight times as great, giving it a diameter about half his or four hundred and thirty thousand miles. Its apparent brightness would depend both upon its distance and upon its intrinsic brightness or albedo, and this last would itself vary according to its distance from the Sun. While it was still in the depths of space and its atmosphere lay inert, owing to the cold there, its intrinsic brightness might be that of the Moon or Mercury. As its own rotation would greatly affect the speed with which its sunward side was warmed, we can form no exact idea of the law of its increase in light. That the augmentation would be great we see from the behavior of comets as they approach the great hearth of our solar system. But we are not called upon to evaluate the question to that nicety. We shall assume, therefore, that its brilliancy would be only that of the Moon, remembering that the last stages of its fateful journey would be much more resplendently set off.

With these data we can find how long it would be visible before the collision occurred. As a very small telescopic star it would undoubtedly escape detection. It is not likely that the stranger would be noticed simply from its appearance until it had attained the eleventh magnitude. It would then be one hundred and forty-nine astronomical units from the Sun or at five times