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The exact composition of this layer of the sidereal atmosphere must, of course, vary with the temperature of the different stars, but in no case can we expect to receive from the spectroscope a full record of all the substances that may be present in other layers of the atmosphere or in the body of the star itself.
The addition of calcium or other forms of matter necessary to the existence of a solid world goes without saying. The question now is whether these necessary conditions exist in other parts of the universe. The spectroscope shows that, so far as the chemical elements go, other worlds are composed of the same elements as ours.
These measures are made with the spectroscope. Unfortunately, they can be best made only on the brighter stars becoming very difficult in the case of stars not plainly visible to the naked eye. Still the motions of several hundreds have been measured and the number is constantly increasing.
He pricked his finger and let a drop of blood fall into a little fresh distilled water, some of which he placed in the spectroscope. "Look through it," he said. "Blood diluted with water shows the well-known dark bands between D and E, known as the oxyhemoglobin absorption." I looked as he indicated and saw the dark bands. "Now," he went on, "I add some of this other liquid."
And in a hundred observatories there had been suppressed excitement, rising almost to shouting pitch, as the two remote bodies had rushed together; and a hurrying to and fro, to gather photographic apparatus and spectroscope, and this appliance and that, to record this novel astonishing sight, the destruction of a world.
It was suggested at the time that the bursting of a star may merely have lit up a previously dark nebula, but the spectroscope does not support this. A dim star had dissolved, wholly or partially, into a nebula, as a result of some mighty cataclysm. What the nature of the catastrophe was we will inquire presently. These are a few of the actual connections that we find between stars and nebulae.
Lowell believes he has, with the spectroscope, proved the existence of water on Mars. One of the most unexpected and interesting of all telescopic discoveries took place in the opposition of 1877, when Mars was unusually near to the earth. The Washington Observatory had acquired the fine 26-inch refractor, and Asaph Hall searched for satellites, concealing the planet's disc to avoid the glare.
In another moment the spectroscope was pointed towards it; three bright lines red, orange, and blue flashed out, and the problem was solved.
This mode of research promises to afford many new and useful data. The spectroscope has revealed the fact that, broadly speaking, the sun is composed of the same materials as the earth. Angstrom was the first to map out all of the lines to be found in the solar spectrum.
James E. Keeler demonstrated with the spectroscope, by means of the Doppler principle, already explained in the chapter on Venus, that the rings circulate about the planet with varying velocities according to their distance from Saturn's center, exactly as independent satellites would do.
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