Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/231

Rh marvel of the heavens—the double and multiple stars. The telescope has revealed to us that several thousands of stars which appear single to the naked eye, consist in reality of two or more luminous bodies placed in close proximity to each other; the observations, and researches made principally by Sir William and Sir John Herschel, Sir James South, and the great Russian astronomer Struve, have placed it beyond doubt that the proximity of these stars to each other is by no means accidental, but that they are physically connected together by the tie of gravity, and revolve round each other as the planets do round the sun, and in obedience to the same law of attraction and gravitation which governs the motions of the solar system. Many of the double stars of unequal magnitude exhibit the beautiful phenomenon of complementary colours. Thus, if the larger star be of a ruddy or orange hue, the smaller one will appear blue or green; if the larger star appear yellow, the smaller will appear blue; if the light of the brighter star incline to crimson, that of the other will incline to green. In connexion with this subject we may here remark, that in many parts of the heavens isolated stars have been observed of a red colour, almost as deep as blood.

Thus, Arcturus, Aldebaran (in Taurus), Antares (in the Scorpion), are red stars; and what is more curious still, Sirius, whose light is now, and has been for several centuries, of the purest white, is