On Thursday week Sir Frank Dyson, the Astronomer-Royal, delivered an
address on the results of the photographic observations taken at a recent eclipse of the sun. During the eclipse it was photographically recorded that the light from certain stars, the position of which was already definitely ascertained by mathematical calculation, was deflected when passing the sun and did not come to the earth in a straight line. To put it differently, the photograph showed the stars to occupy a position which mathematics had proved they did not occupy. The degree of deflection coincided with the prediction of Professor Einstein. Professor Einstein's pre- diction was a necessary consequence of his theory that space itself is warped. To state the ease roughly, it may be necessary in future to regard space not as a thirg extending indefinitely in all directions, but as being analogous to the spherical shape of the world. If one could travel straight on through spoke one might ultimately return to one's starting-place. But this is perhaps carrying the speculation or the analogy too far. All that seems to be certain is that the universe, like our own world, is intolerant of a really straight line. The founda- tions of astronomy must be vastly affected as photographia observations are shown sometimes to be inaccurate.
Previous page
