On the whole, it seems likely that, out to a distance of 300 or
even 400 light-years, there is no marked inequality in star
distribution. If we should explore the heavens to this distance,
we should neither find the beginning of the Milky Way in one
direction nor a very marked thinning out in the other. This
conclusion is quite accordant with the probabilities of the case.
If all the stars which form the groundwork of the Milky Way should
be blotted out, we should probably find 100,000,000, perhaps even
more, remaining. Assigning to each star the space already shown to
be its quota, we should require a sphere of about 3000 light-years
radius to contain such a number of stars. At some such distance as
this, we might find a thinning out of the stars in the direction
of the galactic poles, or the commencement of the Milky Way in the
direction of this stream.
Even if this were not found at the distance which we have
supposed, it is quite certain that, at some greater distance, we
should at least find that the region of the Milky Way is richer in
stars than the region near the galactic poles. There is strong
reason, based on the appearance of the stars of the Milky Way,
their physical constitution, and their magnitudes as seen in the
telescope, to believe that, were we placed on one of these stars,
we should find the stars around us to be more thickly strewn than
they are around our system.
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