RÊVERIES D'UN ASTRONOME

Thème.

When we look at the sky during a bright snmmer night, we cannot but admire the beauty of the universe. The numberless stars, the brilliant planets, make us understand the majesty of the Creator; and when we think of the immense distances that separate our earth from the other heavenly bodies, we realize the insignificance of our position in space. Stars which cannot be seen with the naked eye are in fact immense suns, larger than ours, and around which planets revolve, forming Systems very much like our solar System.

The earth moves around the sun at the rate of 1,929,000 miles a day, at the same time turning on its axis, floating in space like a balloon in the air. If we compare this velocity with the immense space to be passed over, we shall then begin to comprehend it. If we should reduce our planetary System to a sphère of the diameter of Paris we should find out that this motion cannot be seen even through a microscope, as the earth would only be placed a centimètre from the sun, and would take the whole year to go over this very small orbit.