Variable and Temporary Stars.
No theory as to the origin of the sun's light and heat would seem to be admissible unless applicable also to the sidereal systems. Will the meteoric theory explain the phenomena of variable and temporary stars?
"It has been remarked respecting variable stars, that in passing through their successive phases, they are subject to sensible irregularities, which have not hitherto been reduced to fixed laws. In general they do not always attain the same maximum brightness, their fluctuations being in some cases very considerable. Thus, according to Argelander, the variable star in Corona Borealis, which Pigott discovered in 1795, exhibits on some occasions such feeble changes of brightness, that it is almost impossible to distinguish the maxima from the minima by the naked eye; but after it has completed several of its cycles in this manner, its fluctuations all at once become so considerable, that in some instances it totally disappears. It has been found, moreover, that the light of variable stars does not increase and diminish symmetrically on each side of the maximum, nor are the successive intervals between the maxima exactly equal to each other."—Grant's History of Physical Astronomy, p. 541.
Of the numerous hypotheses hitherto proposed to account for these phenomena we believe none can be found to include and harmonize all the facts of observation. The theories of Herschel and Maupertius fail to explain the irregularity in some of the periods; while those of Newton and Dunn afford no explanation of the periodicity itself.[27] But let us suppose that among the fixed stars some have atmospheres of great extent, as was probably the case with the sun at a remote epoch in its history. Let us also suppose the existence of nebulous rings, like those of our own system, moving in orbits so elliptical that in their perihelia they pass through the atmospheric envelopes of the central stars. Such meteoric rings of varying density, like those revolving about the sun, would evidently produce the phenomena of variable stars. The resisting medium through which they pass in perihelion must gradually contract their orbits, or, in other words, diminish the intervals between consecutive maxima. Such a shortening of the period is now well established in the case of Algol. Again, if a ring be influenced by perturbation the period will be variable, like that of Mira Ceti. A change, moreover, in the perihelion distance will account for the occasional increase or diminution of the apparent magnitude at the different maxima of the same star. But how are we to account for the variations of brightness observed in a number of stars where no order or periodicity in the variation has as yet been discovered? It is easy to perceive that either a single nebulous ring with more than one hiatus, or several rings about the same star, may produce phenomena of the character described. Finally, if the matter of an elliptic ring should accumulate in a single mass, so as to occupy a comparatively small arc, its passage through perihelion might produce the phenomenon of a so-called temporary star.
Recent researches relating to nebulæ seem in some measure confirmatory of the view here presented. These observations have shown (1) a change of position in some of these objects, rendering it probable that in certain cases they are not more distant than fixed stars visible to the naked eye; and (2) a variation in the brilliancy of many small stars situated in the great nebula of Orion, and also the existence of numerous masses of nebulous matter in the form of tufts apparently attached to stars,—facts regarded as indicative of a physical connection between the stars and nebulæ.[28]
[CHAPTER XI.]
THE LUNAR AND SOLAR THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF AEROLITES.
Besides the cosmical theory of aerolites which has been adopted in this work, and which is now accepted by a great majority of scientific men, at least four others have been proposed: (1) the atmospheric, according to which they are formed, like hail, in the earth's atmosphere; (2) the volcanic, which regards them as matter ejected with great force from terrestrial volcanoes; (3) the lunar, which supposes them to have been thrown from craters in the moon; and (4) the solar hypothesis, according to which they are projected by some tremendous explosive force from the great central orb of our system. The first and second have been universally abandoned as untenable. The third and fourth, however, are entitled to consideration.