Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Aug 1932
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1932scimo..35..107l&link_type=abstract
The Scientific Monthly, Volume 35, Issue 2, pp. 107
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
GEOLOGY and astronomy have common interests. Astronomy depends for its observation of great distances on a base line--the diameter of the orbit of the earth. The knowledge of this quantity is based on the size of the earth, which, in turn, rests on some small base line determined by the geodetic survey. The astronomer's light year rests on measurements of a short distance on our earth. In the measurement of time the same is true. Measurements of great periods of time are founded on a base line of short duration. The Harvard collection of plates, which this building has been constructed to house, reached further back in time than any other. De Sitter once said: ``Theories change every month, but a good observation lasts.'' The geologist, like the astronomer, measures a great period of time by observations made over a very short time. A group of 50,000 observations has just been completed to determine the exact speed of the decay of radium. Helium content has been measured by Paneth and Urry in quantities as small as one hundredth of a cubic centimeter per ton, in rocks and meteorites. Such measures give us a time scale, and help both geologists and astronomers to fix events in the past and in the future from a relatively short base line.
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