Astronomy and the Bible;

THEOPENSPACEINORION 257

is notmuchlarger than anordinarygrapeorraisin

seed. Attheupperpartofthissmallbrightpatchas

showninthedrawingisadarkportion. Itisnearthe

margin ofthebrightpart,butcompletelysurrounded

byit. Inthedarkpart, youwill noticea fewstars.

ThesearethemultiplestarThetaOrionis.

Ofthisopenspaceorinterruptioninthenebula,Sir

John Herschelhas said,"It is remarkable, however,

thatwithintheareaofthetrapezium,nonebulaexists."

("Outlines,"page609.)

Thatthis openinghas somethingtodo inrelation

tothenebulaentireisevidentfromaclosescrutinyof

itsstructure. Thewholenebulaisbuilt aboutit. I

quote froma prominentastronomical writer regard-

ingthis

:

"The multiple star Orionismight be called the
foundationstoneof theedifice. All thelines of its
architecture are laid down withreferenceto it, and
theintimatephysicalassociationofthestarswiththe
gaseous stuff surrounding them, has been spectro-
graphically demonstrated by Sir William and Lady
Huggins,andamplyratifiedbyProfessorsFrostand
Adams. Surrounding thetrapezium is thebrightest
partof thenebula.... Emanations (or what seem
such) from... [this] core stretch away in wide
curves to form the outlyingportions of the nebula.
The whole fabric of the nebula is concave towards
anaxispassingthroughthetrapeziuminanortheast-
erly and southwesterlydirection."

—

"The System of
theStars,"pages264,26^.

17