XXIX DOUBLE AND MULTIPLE STARS
The plan of the solar system which consists of a central sun encircled by satellites that are far inferior to their luminary in size, and that move about it in orbits that are almost perfect circles, is not the only, nor possibly, even the most general one in the universe.
Sweeping the heavens with powerful telescopes one is astonished to find that myriads of stars can be separated into two or more physically connected suns that are often, moreover, of exquisitely tinted and contrasting shades. Green and red, orange and blue, white and golden or white and blue pairs exist in profusion, and strange to say there are well-authenticated instances of color changes taking place temporarily within the same system. A pair of white stars has been known to change within a few decades, first to golden yellow and bluish green and then to orange and green. The famous pair catalogued as "95 Herculis" was noted to change from green and red to a palish yellow and back to the original strongly contrasting hues within the course of a single year, while at another time they appeared to be a perfectly white pair. At the present time both of these stars are decidedly yellowish in color. Such changes in hue are probably due to temporary disturbances in the atmospheres of the stars, possibly of an electrical nature or to sudden or unusual outbursts of activity, concerning the origin of which we are as much in doubt as we are of the cause of the sun-spot cycle and periodic variation in the intensity of radiation of our own sun. Temporary changes in the color of the components of double star systems sometimes take place when the two stars approach their "periastron" or point of nearest approach. Owing to the great eccentricity of the orbits of double stars, such stars are anywhere from twice to nineteen times as near to each other at periastron as they are at "apastron," or point of greatest departure. Such great changes in the relative distances of two physically connected suns would produce marked changes in the intensity of the tides raised upon each of them by their mutual gravitational attraction and unusual outbursts of gases or electrical excitement in the atmospheres of the stars might cause very noticeable changes in the color of these stars as they drew nearer to each other, which would subside as they receded toward apastron.
In addition to "visual" double or multiple stars, there exists a very extensive class of stars known as "spectroscopic binaries," in which the two components are so close to each other that even the most powerful telescopes cannot divide them. It is only from the shifting of the lines of their overlapping spectra, caused by their alternate motion toward and from the earth as they revolve about their common center of gravity, that their duplex nature is revealed to us.
In some instances one member of the system is so faint that its spectrum is not visible and its presence is disclosed only by the shifting of the lines of the bright star.
According to Doppler's Law, when a star is approaching the earth the lines of its spectrum shift toward the blue end of the spectrum, and when the star is receding from the earth the lines are shifted toward the red end of the spectrum. The amount of this shift can be very accurately measured, and gives the relative velocities of the stars in their orbits directly in miles per second. Knowing in addition, by observation, the period of mutual revolution of the stars, it is possible to find the dimensions of these spectroscopic binary systems compared to our own solar system, and also the masses of the stars compared to the mass of our own sun. If the spectrum of the fainter star is not visible, only the velocity of the brighter star with respect to the center of gravity of the system can be found and the mass found for the system comes out too small. In such cases we can obtain only a lower limit for the mass of the system. Then, too, it must be remembered that these systems of stars lie at all angles with reference to our line of sight, and so we rarely see the orbits in their true form. The measured velocities are as a result smaller than the true velocities, and on the average amount to only sixty per cent. of the true orbital velocities. The calculated masses of spectroscopic binary stars are, therefore, in general only about sixty per cent. of the true masses. It has been found from calculating the masses of a number of binary systems, that the combined masses of the stars in these systems do not differ very greatly among themselves, nor as compared to our own sun, though in light-giving power these stars may differ hundreds, thousands, even millions of times. For instance, there are stars that give only one ten-thousandth part of the light of our own sun, and other stars that give ten thousand times as much light as the sun. Moreover, there are many instances of physically connected stars differing thousands of times in luminosity, though in mass, or quantity of matter found in the stars, they differ only two or three times. Why this is so remains one of the great mysteries of the heavens, and makes it extremely difficult to give any satisfactory theory of the origin of double-star systems. It has never been explained satisfactorily why of two suns physically connected and, therefore, presumably originating at the same time, one should be radiating with the greatest intensity, while the other is practically an extinct sun, in spite of the fact that the quantity of matter in the two bodies differs but slightly.
In a few systems the plane in which the stars revolve passes so nearly through the earth that the two stars temporarily eclipse one another during each revolution. Such systems are called eclipsing binaries. To such a system belongs the famous Algol. Its light waxes and wanes periodically with the greatest punctuality in a period of 2d 20h 48.9m, owing to its temporary eclipse by a very large but extremely faint attendant sun. The diameter of the faint star is slightly greater than the diameter of the bright star which is about one million miles in extent. The distance between the centers of the stars is only about three million miles, which brings their surfaces within two million miles of each other. The masses of the two stars are in the ratio of two to one, the brighter and more massive star being about half as heavy as our own sun, though its density is only about two-tenths that of the sun. The density of the fainter star is still less, being only about half that of the brighter star. Very low density of both components and extreme faintness of one member compared to the other, appears to be a very general characteristic of closely associated eclipsing and spectroscopic binary stars. Among the extremely hot and brilliant helium and hydrogen stars, spectroscopic binaries exist in great numbers. In fact, among these types there appear to be as many binary and multiple systems as there are systems of isolated suns. Sometimes these close binary stars are egg-shaped or oval and revolve rapidly almost in contact about their common center of gravity. Inhabitants of satellites of such a system would see in their heavens the, to us, strange and startling phenomenon of two suns, each equal to our own or even greater in size, whirling rapidly about each other and separated by a space comparable in extent to their own diameters. Eclipses in such a system would be of daily occurrence, and, if one star were dark, would produce for the satellite world the same effect of alternate day and night that results from axial rotation of a satellite. The two hemispheres of the faint companion sun would be very unequally illuminated owing to the fact that the side turned toward the brilliant sun would always reflect its neighbor's brightness in addition to shining with its own comparatively feeble inherent light, while the opposite hemisphere would shine only by its own dim light, and would, therefore, be in comparative darkness.
The spectroscopic binaries generally revolve closely and rapidly about their common center of gravity; there are to be found, on the other hand, among the wider visual doubles, many systems wherein the components are separated by distances comparable to the distances of the outer planets, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, from the sun. It is evident that the individual stars of such binary systems could not possibly be encircled by any such extensive system of satellites as attends our own sun, though satellites such as our own planet Earth, or the inferior planets Mercury and Venus, might conceivably encircle the individual components of such binary systems at distances not greater than that of the earth from the sun. No planet could safely exist at a much greater distance from one of these suns without being subject to most dangerous perturbations and disruptive tidal forces arising from the vicinity of the second sun. Granted that planets might encircle one of these suns at a distance approximating that of Venus or our own planet from the sun, the inhabitants of such worlds would behold the strange phenomenon of two suns in the heavens, not almost in contact as in spectroscopic binary systems, but at one time comparatively near and again in opposite portions of the heavens as is the case with the sun and moon in our own heavens. As the planet advanced in its orbit about the ruling sun, the secondary sun would be visible at first by day and again by night. If the two suns were of contrasting hues, as, for instance, green and red, there might appear in the nearby heavens at a distance of one hundred million miles or so a magnificent sun of deep reddish hue, equal to or surpassing our own in splendor, while in a far distant part of the sky, at a distance as great as that which separates us from the planet Saturn, might appear a rival sun of greenish hue, smaller and fainter, but nevertheless, hot and extremely brilliant and capable of exerting through its great gravitational attraction a most disturbing effect upon the motion of the planet of its neighbor. At times the rays of the two suns, red and green, would combine to produce a day characterized by terrific heat and intense illumination. Again the green orb would rise in the east as the red sun set in the west and night would be turned into a weird, dimly-lighted day by the greenish rays of the secondary sun. Compared to the wonders and beauties of the heavens in such a system, our own well-regulated and orderly planet family, undisturbed by the exciting proximity of a rival sun, seems to pale into insignificance. Yet we have every good reason to be content with the ordering of affairs within our own solar system, and to feel relief rather than regret at the absence of a secondary sun. In a planet world revolving about one member of a double star system, we may imagine the dread rather than pleasure with which the periodic near-approach of a rival sun would be hailed, and even the possible hurried migration from exposed to sheltered portions of the planetary world to escape the rapidly increasing heat and intensity of light from the approaching sun. In such systems the coming and going of the seasons might indeed be a matter of life and death to the inhabitants of satellite worlds!
Within our solar system the masses of the planets are practically negligible compared to the mass of the sun, and it is for this reason that they appear to revolve about the center of the sun. As a matter of fact, no body in the universe revolves about the exact geometrical center of another body, but two mutually attracting bodies revolve in orbits about their common center of gravity, which always lies between the two bodies on the line connecting them and at a distance from each of them that is in inverse proportion to the mass of the body. The moon does not revolve about the center of the earth, but about the center of gravity of the earth and moon, which lies on the line connecting the two bodies and at a distance from the earth's center that is one eighty-first of the distance from the center of the earth to the center of the moon, since this represents the ratio of the masses of the two bodies. This center of gravity of the earth and moon, lies, then, about two thousand miles from the earth's center, and about this point both earth and moon trace out orbits of revolution that are identical in form and differ only in size. In the same way each of the planets of the solar system revolves about the center of gravity of itself and the sun, but the mass of the sun is so far in excess of the combined masses of all the planets that we may consider, for all practical purposes, that the planets revolve about the sun's center, the center of gravity of the system being within the sun, just as the center of gravity of the earth and moon is within the earth.
Prof. T. J. J. See found from the investigation of forty binary star orbits that the average eccentricity of double star orbits is twelve times as great as the average eccentricity of a planetary orbit, and that the masses of the component suns never differ very greatly. The center of gravity of a binary system, therefore, lies at a great distance from the centers of the stars, and about this point, as a focus, the stars move in orbits that are exactly similar in form but differ in size in inverse proportion to the ratio of the masses. Since the orbits of binaries are, moreover, very highly eccentric, the two suns are, as we have said, anywhere from two to nineteen times nearer to each other at periastron than they are at "apastron."
We have spoken so far only of systems of two associated suns, but many systems exist in which three or more sun-like bodies are in revolution about a common center of gravity. Frequently two fairly close suns are in revolution about a common center of gravity, in a period, say, of fifty or sixty years, while a third sun revolves at a comparatively great distance about the center of gravity of itself and the first pair in a period of several hundred years. Or possibly the third sun also possesses a close attendant and the two pairs revolve in a period of great length about a common center of gravity.
Such, for instance, are the systems of Zeta Cancri and Epsilon Lyræ. In the former system the closer components revolve rapidly about their center of gravity in a period of about sixty years, while the remote companion shows irregularities in its motion that indicate that it is revolving about a dark body in a period of seventeen and a half years, while the two together are revolving very slowly in a period of six or seven centuries, about a common center of gravity with the first pair in a retrograde direction.
The wider pair of Epsilon Lyræ is a naked-eye double for it can be seen as a double star by a keen eye, while even a three-inch telescope will separate each of the components into a double star. So extensive is this system that the periods of revolution of the closer components occupy several centuries, one pair appearing to revolve about twice as rapidly as the other, while the period of revolution of the two pairs about a common center is probably a matter of thousands of years. The gap that separates the two pairs may be so great that light requires months to cross it.
These multiple systems are by no means exceptional. They are to be found in profusion among the brilliant Orion stars. They have been referred to as "knots" of stars and it has been suggested that they may have originated as local condensations in one vast nebulous tract. A system of only two components appears to be the exception rather than the rule, groups of several connected suns being more numerous than single pairs.
In all of these double and multiple systems there exists the possibility of minute satellites, such as our own earth, in attendance upon some one component of the system. Such tiny bodies shining only by reflected light from a nearby brilliant sun would be hopelessly invisible in the most powerful telescope.
We can only assume that it is far more reasonable to believe in than to disprove the existence of such satellites.
Our own solar system, then, represents neither in its mechanical nor physical features, the only possibilities for the maintenance of life; it can neither be considered a unique form, nor even the most generally prevalent form in the universe.