ttleekly Cbcmawa American
VUb-
MARCH
A s t r o n o m e r D e s c r ib e s
W o r ld s P r o b a b le ELnd
1 hose easy” persons who are always
afraid that some predicted end to the
world will come to pa-»s suddenly should
find considerable comfort in the asser
tion of Professor Lowell that there is the
best of scientific evidence for believing
mankind will have many years’ warning
of the great and final cataclysm which
may put this earth in a scrap heap. The
professor has no doubt that such an end
will come to the earth, but he makes no
attempt to say when the event will occur
1 hose who know about the eminent as
tronomer and his work do not doubt his
word of course; and those who do not may
rest assured that Professor Lowell is am­
ply qualified h render an opinion on this
important subject. The probable nature
of the end of the world, as the conclusions
of the scientists show, will be a drop into
the sun; but Professor Lowell says we
shall have advance knowledge of this, he
knows. As the scientists have figuied it
out there is somewhere in the remote
confines of space a great mass of matter
once a world, but now dead — hurtling
toward our sun When it hits the bull’s-
eye, as if i- bound to do some day, our
10, 1911
little hunk of mud will cease to exist.
It is well for our peace of mind that
no such dead world is at present within
dangerous proximity. Yet who knows
what day the morning papers mav an­
nounce that one has been discovered by
aid of the sun’s light reflected upon it as
it enters our little circle—butting into
our society, so to speak. While it would
then be certain the end of the world
was at han 1, still, there would be ample
time in which to prepare for the inevit­
able. About 27 years would elapse from
the time it was discovered by some as­
tronomer with his telescope until the
fatal mass could be seen with the naked
eye, and not until three years later
would it appear as large as the brightest
stars in the heavens. Nearly three years
more and our seasons would begin to
change, the days becoming longer. The
beginning of the end would come about
five months later. The stranger would
i.ot sirike our little planet, but would
pass so close in its dash to the sun
that the earth would turn and f< How un­
til, together, they would drop silently into
the sun, like a couple of dust specks into
a roaring furnace fire.
Professor Lowell, who has so clamly
announced the probability of this start-