The Extent of the Universe
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1906
- Form
- Essay
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 15 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Approachable1 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendSide-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular ScienceHarper and Brothers, 1906The collection in which Newcomb gathered the essay; long out of print, but the text is free in the Harvard Classics and on Project Gutenberg.
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A popular essay by the leading American astronomer of his day, first published in a magazine in 1902 and collected in Side-Lights on Astronomy. Newcomb asks how large the universe is and whether it is finite. He explains how the distances of stars are measured by parallax and by their motions, argues from the counts of faint stars that the stellar system is bounded rather than infinite, and reasons that if the stars extended without limit the night sky would be uniformly bright. He treats the question as open and the evidence as provisional.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Extent of the Universe are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
