TABLE VIII.--MASSES OF A FEW BINARY STARS SHOWING THE LIMIT OF THE SUN'S SPHERE OF ATTRACTION WITH RESPECT TO THEM, IN RADII OF THE EARTH'S ORBIT, AND DISTANCES OF THEIR BOUNDARIES WITH THE SUN IN THE SAME MEASURE, AND ALSO IN NEPTUNE DISTANCES. -----------+-----+------+-------------+------------+---------------+ | P | |Distance of |Distance of | | | a | Mass |Star from Sun| Limit of | Distance of | | r | |in radii of |Sun's Sphere|Limit in radii | Name of | a |Sun's |the Earth's |of Attract'n| of Neptune's | Star. | l | Mass | Orbit |in radii of | Orbit | | l | = 1. | | Earth's | | | a | |(93,000,000 | Miles. | | | x | | Miles.) | |= 2,794,000,000| | (") | | | Orbit = 1. | | -----------+-----+------+-------------+------------+---------------+ [Greek: a] | | | | | | Centauri | 0·75| 2·14 | 275,000 | 128,505 | 4,277 | | | | | | | 61 Cygni | 0·43| 0·23 | 479,686 | 369,358 | 12,294 | | | | | | | Sirius | 0·38| 4·26 | 543,000 | 127,465 | 4,243 | | | | | | | [Greek: a] | | | | | | Geminorum | 0·20| 0·30 | 1,031,325 | 721,927 | 24,030 | | | | | | | 70 Ophiuchi | 0·16| 5·00 | 1,289,150 | 257,830 | 8,582 | | | | | | | [Greek: ê] | | | | | | Cassiopeiæ | 0·15| 3·00 | 1,375,100 | 458,366 | 15,257 | ------------+-----+------+-------------+------------+---------------+
But there is still something to be said with respect to the Binary Stars of Table VIII., and any others whose masses may be met with later on. If those forming a pair revolve around each other, or a common centre, in orbits, it must happen that they will be sometimes more or less in conjunction, opposition, and quadrature with regard to the sun; also the angles of the planes of their orbits to direct lines between them and the sun, whatever these angles may be, will cause variations in the separate and combined forces of attraction they exercise in the domains of the sun, at different periods of their revolutions; so that these powers of attraction will be constantly increasing and diminishing, and causing the boundaries of their domains to approach and recede from the sun; thus introducing between their domains and those of the sun a debatable land, which will reduce celestial to be very much like terrestrial affairs, where each proprietor, or power, takes the pull when an opportunity presents itself. No doubt all such invasions, or claims, between proprietors will be settled by the law of attraction, without lawsuit, arbitration or conflict; but as law gives right, and might is right--most emphatically in this case--we come back to the old seesaw of earthly matters. Well, therefore, many astronomers teach that the whole universe is formed out of the same kind of materials, and governed by the same laws that we are having good reason to know something about on this earth of ours.