Paper
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Published Dec 1, 1916 · W. W. Campbell
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
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Abstract
The study of astronomy begins naturally with the solar system. The solar system is our abode. It is the observing station from which we look out in all directions to the great stellar system. The solar system is only a minute detail in the structure of the universe. He who would explore the universe should begin by knowing his immediate surroundings. Our visual telescopes could show us sixty or seventy millions of stars, distributed over the whole sky, and our great reflecting telescopes could photograph possibly two or three times as many. With only one exception all of these stars are so far away that they are seen , as mere points of light in our most powerful telescope, even when the magnification is nearly 3,000 diameters. The one exceptional star is our Sun. It alone of all the stars can be seen to have a “diameter.” It alone of all the stars can be studied in any geometric detail by means now available. This is because our Sun is relatively near to us. The next nearest star known, Alpha Centauri, is 275 thousand times as far away from us as our star is. If we would know what the stars in general are we should begin by learning about our own star. That is the chief reason why there are solar observatories in many countries of the world. Those institutions are occupied wholly or chiefly in the study of the Sun. Our Sun is an exceedingly interesting body in itself, especially for beings who live in the solar system, but its main interest to astrono/ mers lies in the fact that knowledge of conditions existing in our Sun enables us to draw many conclusions concerning conditions existing in millions of other suns. It is not our purpose to describe the solar system in detail ; nor shall we burden the lecture by quoting the enormous distances which separate the heavenly bodies : astronomers do not comprehend them any better than the laymen do. One or two distances, one or two masses, will be sufficient to serve as scale values for the entire system. We shall make it our chief concern to emphasize the characteristic features of the
Solar System, and to emphasize the importance of studying our Sun for understanding the conditions in other suns.
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