Fhe Omaha Sunday Bee ; Magazin
Copyright, 1912, y American-Examiner. Great Britain Right Reserved.
Gigantic Planets, the Captives of Strange Suns;
Whose Nightmarish Cretin
Thicker Than the Ocean Depths
Where the 77temc Xes
By ProfeSSOr Garrett P. ServisS, the Distinguished Astronomer.
ONE of the most Interesting recent dts- '
coverlet of modern astronomy is
. . that of the existence of huge Invis
ible companions to many stars, and still more
Interesting is the conclusion that these ex
traordinary ' bodies may be gigantic planetB
revolving in the light of the stars with which
they are connected. If they are planets, they
so enormously exceed those that revolve
around our sun, in magnitude, that they must
be regarded as an entirely different. species
of worlds than ours. The earth placed be
elde one of them, would be like a mouse be
side an elephant, or a trout beside a whale,
Even the great planet Jupiter, which is
1,300 times as large as the whole earth, would
be utterly insignificant in comparison with
one of these mysterious bodies which has
been found revolving around the star Algol
in the northern sky. That body is more than
a million times as large as the earth. In
fact, it is almost as large m the star around "
which it revolves although that star" is '
larger than our sun and yet it is utterly in
visible, except at certain periods when it
passes between us and Algol and thus causes
a partial eclipse of its bright companion.
Even then it cannot be seen directly, and Its
form and dimensions are estimated from the
amount of obscuration that it causes. Its
' diameter is calculated at about 840,000 miles.
We can get a realising sense of what this
means if we imagine that tremendous world
to be a hollow sphere, with the earth placed ,
at its center. Then there would not only be
plenty of room for the moon to continue to
revolve round the earth, as it now does, at a
distance of 240,000 miles, but there would he
a clear space of 780,000 miles, on all sides
between the orbit of the moon and ,the inside
of the shell of the Brodlgnaglan planet!
- The surface of such a planet exceeds that
of the earth ten thousand times. The At
lantic ocean stretched out upon it, to the
same relative sirs that it ' Is on the earth,
would be more than 300,000 miles broad, it
It had surface features exactly proportioned ,
to those of the earth, its loftiest mountains
would be from 400 to 500 miles high, and its
oceans from 200 to 600 miles deep! A dis
tance corresponding to that between New
York and Chicago would be ninety thousand '
miles long. And, if everything were con- .
strocted on the same scale, men would be
600 feet tall, .and the giant redwoods of Cali
fornia eight or nine miles high!
Of course, the force, of gravity, or the
weight of bodies, must also be enormously
increased. If we suppose the mean density
of the giant planet to be the. same as that of ',
the earth, a body that weighs one pound here
weighs about a hundred ' pounds there, and
an average man, having the same size that
be has on the earth, would there weigh seven
and a half tons. But If he were 600 feet tali
that is to say, proportioned to the size of
the planet he would weigh seven and a half
million tons.
But there are many other interesting calcu- -lations,
all based upon perfectly well known
principles, that can be made about the condi
tion of things on a world so gigantic as that
which accompanies Algol. We may, for in
stance, inquire about the state of its atmos
phere. The density and nature of the air
surrounding any planet, depend upon the force
of gravity of that planet. If the planet is
' very small, the force with which it holds
bodies, or gases, upon its surface is propor
tionately small. Thus we know that a little
" world, like the moon, on which the weight .
of bodies is only about one-sixth as great as
on the earth, is unable to hold permanently
under its control any of the light gases which -.
constitute the air that we breathe. The
lighter a gas the quicker it escapes, because
its molecules are in more rapid vibration
than those of heavier gases. A gas is a sub
stance in which the molecules are continually
flying about in every direction, with a speed
depending upon the nature of the gas, and
unless the attractive force of a planet is suf
ficient to restrain the molecules of a gas
when their direction of flight, happens to be
away from the center of the planet, then
those molecules, and ultimately the whole of
the gas, will escape into outer space.
To determine whether any planet is able to
hold the gases that make an atmosphere, we
find out, . from its size and density, what
speed a gaseous molecule, or any other par
ticle of matter, would have to have in order
to fly directly away from it and never re-,
turn. In the case of the earth this speed is One of the Gro
anown to oe aDout seven miles per second. vMnA
If. then, anv oartlcla should atart awav. tesque, riauenea
radially, from the surface of the earth's at
mosphere, with a velocity ' exceeding seven
miles per second, it would escape into space
and never come back. Now, the molecules
of hydrogen have a maximum velocity of
vibration exceeding this limit, and, as a con
sequence, we find no free
hydrogen in the air. But
the molecules of oxygen
and nitrogen, and the '
other gases which ire
found in air, have velocl
ties less than seven
miles per second, where
fore they remain attachcJ
density the pressure would amount to three
quarters of a ton per square inch!
Now, if it could be. supposed , that the in
habitants of that planet were composed of
substances of relatively small density, so that
an animal as large as a man would weigh no
more there than a man does here, they
would almost be able to float in the air, and
with comparatively slight, aid could actually
do so, Aerial navigation would , be as ea3y
and natural to them as swimming is to us. .
This leads U3 to another consideration.
We have thus far assumed that the mean
density of the great planet in the Algol sys
tem is equal to" that of the earth. The prob
ability, is, however, that, its density may not.
be more than one-quarter of the earth's. This
calculation la based both upon observation
and upon analogy. The mean density of the
sun, which 1b a' body of nearly the same size
Deep Sea Fish,, rfylj - 7 iiagram snowing
Built to Live in M ' 1 the .Enormous Size of
Water No Denser rn $5 Y fe PI?nl,
Than the Air on rrfO ySS?"' Jw Around Algol, the De-
the Great Planet. VrW3 NDKr" ' mon-.; Earth and
. - irflyr-l, .' - ' iiiiliMlIffTr Moon Could Float -Inside
r-' J0r '''jT1 " Itwith;i80,000Milesto
. i, Vssx. - K;'.J ; .JKtf S
"Imagine' the scent on this enormous -vorld.
If we think of its inhabitant in our owu familial
forms wj would ea groteique, crawling .i
turea like the elephant, flattened to the planet!
surface by the enormous pull of gravitation
man would be a weird caterpillar, tree woul
grow with . their branches dreggc ' to crth o
develope balloon-like foliage and the 'birds
would bo h mble globes of life floa-" i th . igl
the thick air.";
to the earth and form an invisible atmosphere
around it
On the 'other hand, a very great planet,
like that of Algol, would retain not only the
constituents of our. air, but also the volatile
hydrogen which escapes from the earth's con
trol, and, for all that we know, other gases
if there be any whose molecular velocity is
greater than that of hydrogen. Thus we see
that the atmosphere of so huge a planet must
be widely different In its composition from
the air to which we are accustomed.
What the consequences of the existence in
the atmosphere of a planet of free hydrogen'
might be it is difficult to guess. We know
that hydrogen when mixed in certain propor
tions with oxygen will explode with extreme
violence at the touch of a flame or an elec
trie spark. Suppose a planet, like that of
Algol, to be surrounded with an atmosphere,
containing hydrogen mixed with oxygen, and
suppose that, owing to some cause, the mix
ture attains, at some ploint, the explosive
ratio and then let a flash of lightning pass
through it! It Is conceivable that the . re
sulting explosion might have the most dread
ful consequence. It is worth while consider
ing whether this may not be the real cause
of some of the sudden outbursts of wbat are
called "new stars."
Then, too, upon such a planet the density
of the atmosphere would be far greater than
upon earth. Here the air presses with a
force of fifteen pounds to the square Inch;
on the companion of Algol making the same
supposition as before regarding the planet's
- "Or it -.
may
be that
the
Inhabitants
are nebulous giants to whom a flock of our aeroplanes would be no more than a
, flock of wasps." ;" l-:." ''"",: f '
!.- .' ,r.y -.. . ;
as . that with which we are dealing, is one
. ,' quarter of the earth's density. In that case
the , total gravitation of the planet would be
only 250,000 times greater than the earth's,
and the weight of bodies on its surface would
be reduced to twenty-five times their weight
here. But even then the pressure of its at
mosphere, supposed to be relatively of the
same extent as the earth's atmosphere, would
be 375 pounds to the square inch which is
a much higher pressure than any careful en
gineer would dare to put into the best steam
boiler. A cubic yard of that air, removed to
the earth's surface and allowed suddenly to
expand, would blow a building to pieces like
an explosion of dynamite!
But we have not yet touched upon all the
curious consequences resulting from the great
size of the mysterious planet near Algol.
Assuming that its mean density is one quar
ter that of the earth; and that, consequently
bodies upon its surface weigh twenty-five
times as much as the same bodies do here,
we may reasonably conclude that its inhabi
tants, instead of being giants proportioned to
the great size of their world, must rather be
dwarfs, only a foot or two in height This
conclusion results from the consideration
that, if they were as large as the inhabitants
of the earth they would be unable to stand
up under their immense weight. It would
crash them down. On such a planet an aver
age man would weigh 3,750 pounds. (This
! differs from our former estimate of 15,000
pounds,, or 7 tons, because we now assume
that the density of the planet is but a quarter
of the earth's instead of being equal to it).
But could a man of that weight possiblv
stand upright? Apparently, the only way in
which locomotion would be possible to the in
habitants of such a world would be by mak-
. ing them so small that their weight would
be reduced to a point where bones and mus
cles could easily support it. This could be
accomplished by making the stature of a man
about 24 inches. A man of that height on a
planet having (at its surface) twenty-five
times the gravitative force of the earth would
weigh about as much as a six-footer on the
earth, and no more. A full-grown elephant,
in- order to be comfortable, would have to
shrink to a height of about four feet or be
flattened out like a flounder and move about
In that shape.
. We have spoken of but one of these great
bodies, that which accompanies Algol, but, in
fact many others are known. There is a con
siderable number of stars which have huge
dark companions that may , be regarded as
giant planets. We become aware of their
existence by the effects of their attraction
upon the stars. . It is even possible, in such
. cases, to calculate the relative cize and weight
of these invisible 'bodies. The one near
Algol is, as we have said, about 840,000 miles
n diameter, while Algol itself has a diameter
of about 1,125,000 miles. They revolve round
their common center of gravity in the ex
ceedingly brief period of sixty hours, and.
they are only 3,320,000 miles apart, from cen-
ter to center. .
But this is not all. There is at least one
of these giant planetary bodies which is act
. ually larger, or more massive, than its own
- sun reversing the ordinary rule with a ven
.geance. It, is the great body which is con
nected with the bright star Castor, in the con
stellation of the Twins.
The arrival of a huge dark body, or stranger
planet, in our system, whether it resulted in
a collision with the sun or not, would in
evitably upset the present planetary system.
The earth and the other planets would be
swirled from their orbits; the existing order
ly arrangement would be broken up; if the
intruder approached close to the sun the lat
ter would burst out with redoubled energies,
shrivelling up, perhaps, the whole retinue of
' its planets like moths in a flame; and the
hitherto peaceful worlds, driving wildly
hither and . thither, might destroy one an
' other in fiery collisions.