Recreations in Astronomy - With Directions for Practical Experiments and Telescopic Work by Henry White Warren
page 54 of 249 (21%)
page 54 of 249 (21%)
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to read the movements of matter.
It should be recognized that Professor Young, of [Page 54] Princeton, is the most successful operator in this recent realm of science. He already proposes to correct the former estimate of the sun's axial revolutions, derived from observing its spots, by the surer process of observing accelerated and retarded light. Within a very few years this wonderful instrument, the spectroscope, has made amazing discoveries. In chemistry it reveals substances never known before; in analysis it is delicate to the detection of the millionth of a grain. It is the most deft handmaid of chemistry, the arts, of medical science, and astronomy. It tells the chemical constitution of the sun, the movements taking place, the nature of comets, and nebulæ. By the spectroscope we know that the atmospheres of Venus and Mars are like our own; that those of Jupiter and Saturn are very unlike; it tells us which stars approach and which recede, and just how one star differeth from another in glory and substance. In the near future we shall have the brilliant and diversely colored flowers of the sky as well classified into orders and species as are the flowers of the earth. [Page 55] IV. CELESTIAL MEASUREMENTS. |
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