Land, sea and sky, or, Wonders of life and nature : a description of the physical geography and organic life of the earth / translated from the German of Herman J. Klein and Dr.Thomé by J.Minshull.

Hermann Joseph Klein

Date:: [1884]

Credit: Land, sea and sky, or, Wonders of life and nature : a description of the physical geography and organic life of the earth / translated from the German of Herman J. Klein and Dr.Thomé by J.Minshull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$whatever group of stars we looked out upon the universe we should ^aze upon this same milky way. It is easy then to admit, from what has been advanced, that the starry strata of this wonderful region are indeed unfathomable by human effort The separate stars of our own system are unequal both in brilliancy and in distance from us and from each other. The nearest star of which we are cognizant is Alpha, in the constellation of the Centaur, and its distance amounts to 20} million miles. The beautiful dog-star, Sirius, is 90 billions of miles distant from us; and as the sun, if it changed places with Sirius would only give out ^\ of the light afforded by the latter, it is evident that the sun has less light power in just that proportion. Whether this difference in brilliancy depends, as some assert, on the difference of age existing between the two heavenly bodies, cannot be proved, for nothing is known as to the relative ages of the stars. It is however certain that as there was a time when the stars did not shine, so the time is coming in which their lio-ht will cease, and their heat fail. ^ As mechanical force is generated by heat, so, conversely, the amount of heat can be expressed by the mechanical force exerted. If then we inves- tigate the mechanical force which the sun sends out in the shape of heat we hnd that in every minute 1,026 billions horse power reaches the earth in the sun s rays, and that all life and motion on this planet are supplied by the force so expended. Now the earth only receives part of the whole light povver sent out by the sun, and we are thus enabled to calculate the amoSnt of light and heat actually expended. Unless, then, the sun is a miraculous body created out of nothing, and supported by a perpetual exertion of inde- i'' ^^^^ ''' ^^^y expenditure of light Ther. 1' ^''''1 '^^ '^^y ^^'^^ cannot last for ever. There is, however, no known source which could provide the sun with a con ltIrittT/\'' T n ^^^^^^^^^ ^^-t hlltar of day must at last be extinguished. And as the sun's heat must one dav die out m space, so also will the planets find an end of their exisTence, and preclpltaL themselves upon the sun, because in their movement they encoun^^efrcerta n actuX cote to n.^^ n' ^^^^'^ ^^^^'^ ^^'^ catastrophe can tl^Tfl T I P^^'- ^^ too, must end as she be-an in liauid fire coniecrre w a^ k tlT ^'^ ^^'■'> ^^ we are at liberty to conjecture ivliat is tak.ng place upon the exploding planet. the c™a ion'o a'notT' ° be followed by in thratmaUve! bt ^h? h^'i7orJ:.? jV^ ^^^^^^ ----^^ cessation of tliis creative W^ .-.P™?' °f t']^/here will not come a final- present afford rsusoend our en' - ^''^ ^« f »he suns, stars and c^ '^y.^d will crush d< own on But paltry as may seem the m'r n ^i^l u f''^^^' ^ reversible machine, this over4elmrc.^acr'il^^^^^^ h^'-^ race in presence of decisive and 1 ^hl4^est^^^^^^^ ^^^^ yet the stars, sinks into noth^c^nSs hefor. ° ^ ^mv^rs^, with all its suns and of a sentient bein extinction of the last consciousness$