Astronomers

In Chicago, last week, members of the American Astronomical Society held their 44th annual meeting. Between sessions they visited the new Adler Planetarium (TIME, May 19), were entertained there by Director Philip Fox who made suns rise and set, moons wax and wane for them in a few minutes. Speeches outlining the latest astronomical discoveries were given in the Astronomical Museum in the same building with the planetarium. Some important observations:

Weather Forecast. The amount of heat given off by the sun varies from day to day. For 30 years, declared Dr. Charles Greeley Abbot, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, members of the Institution have studied these variations in sun radiations in relation to the earth's temperature. For the last six years measurements made at Washington and other stations showed a definite temperature movement up or down whenever solar radiation increased or decreased. With a change in solar radiation of only .8%, temperature was affected as much as 5DEG F. This effect must be indirect, must operate through some unknown atmospheric condition since at times a rise in radiation will lower temperature and at other times will raise it. More knowledge will furnish a means of forecasting weather months in advance.

Smaller Universe. Much starlight is absorbed in space before it reaches the earth. Dr. Piet Van de Kamp, Leander McCormick Observatory, and Dr. Robert Julius Trumpler, Lick Observatory, measured the absorption, concluded that astronomers who have based their measurements of star distances on the assumption that space does not interfere with light, may have overestimated the size of the universe. Cosmic dust, meteors and free-electrons-in-space are possible absorbers of starlight.

Poisonous Tail. From a study of photographs taken of Halley's comet at its last appearance in 1910, Dr. N. T. Bobrovnikoff, Perkins Observatory, Ohio Wesleyan, found that the comet really had two tails. One, narrow and brilliant, consisted of carbon monoxide gas, would have killed all life on earth if it had approached too closely. The other tail was curved, consisted of meteoric dust.

Pulsations. Cosmic dust, electrically charged atoms, moves through the electro-magnetic fields of the universe, said Benjamin Boss, director of the Dudley Observatory, Albany, discussing his theory of cosmic evolution. This dust condenses, forms giant stars. After a brilliant period, the stars lose mass through radiation, eventually return to atomic clouds which condense into more stars. As the sun travels through cosmic dust, its radiation varies. Earth's bombardment of electrons comes from the sun, travels along the lines of the earth's magnetic field. Striking in the magnetic polar regions, these electrons maintain the negative electric charge. Variations in electric charge cause atoms to expand, contract, result in a pulsation of the earth. Earthquakes, volcanoes, are evidences of pulsation.

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