The Dying Sun (Sir James Jeans)

Summary

"The Dying Sun" is an exploratory essay by Sir James Jeans. Tn this essay, He describes the size of the sun as compared to the earth and the universe. He says that there are countless stars in the universe and most of them are bigger than the sun. The stars travel in the universe million miles away

from each other and they rarely come close. 

Sir James Jeans seems to believe big bang theory of the creation of the earth and other planets of our solar system. He says that some two thousand millions years ago a wandering star came near the sun. Its gravitational pull creates a huge tide on the surface of the sun. it became so huge that it burst and its pieces fell in the space. So these torn pieces of our sun began to move around the sun. These are the planets of which our earth is one. Therefore our earth and other planets came into being as a result of a rare accident.

The write narrates how the life started on the earth. He says that he doesn't exactly know how it happened but the life started in simple unicellular organisms and later it kept on changing into a complex generation like humans.

The write says that life only exists under suitable conditions and these conditions are only present on the earth. these conditions may be present at a specific distance from the sun where the temperature is suitable for life.

He further explains the size of the universe as compared to our earth and the sun. He says the universe is frightening because we cannot measure the stretches of distance and time. We feel alone on the earth as we find no life near the planet earth. There as only space millions mile from the earth.

Question Answer Notes

Q. 1: How is it that star seldom finds another star near it?

  Ans: A star seldom finds another star near it because there is a distance of millions of miles between the two stars. Moreover, space is immensely vast and each star is bound to travel in its own orbit.

Q. 2: What happened when, according to Sir James Jeans, a wandering star, wandering through space came near the sun?

  Ans: When a wandering star came near the sun, it raised tides on the surface of the sun. These tides formed a high mountain on the surface of the sun that we can hardly imagine.

Q. 3: What happened when the wandering star came nearer and nearer?

  Ans: When the wandering star came nearer and nearer the sun, the mountain on the surface of the sun rose higher and higher and was, finally, torn into pieces.

Q. 4: What are planets and how did they come into existence?

  Ans: The planets are the broken parts of the sun. They came into existence due to tidal pull caused by some star on the surface of the sun.

Q. 5: Why is there no life on the stars?

  Ans: There is no life on the stars because the stars are balls of fire and they have intense heat. Therefore, the stars are too hot for life to exist on them.

Q. 6: Write a note on the beginning of life on earth?

  Ans: When the earth gradually became cooler and cooler. Life started in very simple organisms which had the ability to reproduce themselves before dying. In the end, it produced the most complicated organisms like the man who has feelings and ambitions.

Q. 7: Why is the universe so frightening?

  Ans: The universe is so frightening because of immense stretches of time, extreme loneliness, and absence of life on other planets.

Q. 8: What should be the conditions necessary, for the kind of life we know to exist on other heavenly bodies? Do such conditions generally exist?

  Ans: Life can exist only in some suitable physical condition like moderate temperature, air, and water. Such conditions do not exist on other heavenly bodies except the earth. Therefore, there is no life on other heavenly bodies.

Q. 9: How do the stars travel in the universe?

  Ans: The stars travel in the universe either in groups or mostly they travel alone. They travel at a vast distance from one another

Q.10: What are the temperature belts?

  Ans The temperature belts are zones that surround each hot star at a certain distance. The temperature there is neither too hot nor too cold. Life can exist on such temperature belts.