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White to begin with, the star soon turned deep red, and its redness was visibly intensified at each of its recurring minima of light. Blanching, however, ensued upon the development of its nebulous proclivities; and its surviving rays are of a steely hue. All the more important investigations of Nova Persei were conducted by photographic means.
Since 1892 one Nova after another has shown a spectrum as described above, like a meteor rushing towards us and leaving a train behind, for this seems to be the obvious meaning of the spectra. The same may be said of the brilliant Nova Persei, brighter at its best than Capella, and discovered also by Dr. Anderson on February 22nd, 1901.
This was conspicuous with Nova Persei which glowed more and more redly as it faded, until the nebulous light began to overpower that of the stellar nucleus. Nothing could be more suggestive of the dying out of a great fire. Moreover, change of color from white to red is characteristic of all variable stars of long period, such as ``Mira'' in Cetus.
Two of these, 512 and 521, constitute the celebrated double cluster, sometimes called the Sword-hand of Perseus, and also chi Persei. To the smallest telescope this aggregation of stars, ranging in magnitude from six and a half to fourteen, and grouped about two neighboring centers, presents a marvelous appearance.
He also devoted himself to solar physics, and wrote some remarkable papers on the sudden appearance in 1903 of the star Nova Persei. He was the first to call attention to the probability that radium plays a part in the maintenance of solar heat. In fact, the science of radio-activity was engaging his keenest interest at the time of his early death.
In a star-swarm the separate members are distinguishable because they are either larger or nearer than the stars composing a ``cloud. A splendid example of a true star-swarm is furnished by Chi Persei, in that part of the Milky Way which runs between the constellations Perseus and Cassiopeia. This swarm is much coarser than many others, and can be seen by the naked eye.
It is, accordingly, quite possible to photograph objects so faint as to be altogether beyond the power of any telescope to reveal witness the chemical disclosure of the invisible nebula encircling Nova Persei and we may thus eventually learn whether a blank space in the sky truly represents the end of the stellar universe in that direction, or whether farther and farther worlds roll and shine beyond, veiled in the obscurity of immeasurable distance.
The vortex of meteors once formed would protect the flying body within from further immediate collisions, the latter now occurring mainly among the meteors themselves, and then the central blaze would die down, and the original splendor of the phenomenon would fade. But the theories about Nova Persei have been almost as numerous as the astronomers who have speculated about it.
But while Janssen's theory might do for some temporary stars, it is inadequate to explain all the phenomena of Nova Persei, and particularly the appearance of the great spiral nebula that seemed to exhale from the heart of the star. Upon the whole, the theory of an encounter between a star and a dark nebula seems best to fit the observations.
Of these, four were the known visible lines, and a fifth, high up in the ultra-violet, at wave-length 3,727, has evidently peculiar relationships, as yet imperfectly apprehended. It is strong in the spectra of many planetaries; it helped to characterise the nebular metamorphosis of Nova Aurigæ, yet failed to appear in Nova Persei.
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