Far outside
of what we call the universe might still exist other universes
which we can never see.
It is a great encouragement to the astronomer that, although he
cannot yet set any exact boundary to this universe of ours, he is
gathering faint indications that it has a boundary, which his
successors not many generations hence may locate so that the
astronomer shall include creation itself within his mental grasp.
It can be shown mathematically that an infinitely extended system
of stars would fill the heavens with a blaze of light like that of
the noonday sun. As no such effect is produced, it may be
concluded that the universe has a boundary. But this does not
enable us to locate the boundary, nor to say how many stars may
lie outside the farthest stretches of telescopic vision. Yet by
patient research we are slowly throwing light on these points and
reaching inferences which, not many years ago, would have seemed
forever beyond our powers.
Every one now knows that the Milky Way, that girdle of light which
spans the evening sky, is formed of clouds of stars too minute to
be seen by the unaided vision. It seems to form the base on which
the universe is built and to bind all the stars into a system.
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