256 ASTRONOMY: J. H. OORT PROC. N. A. S.
1 Mt. Wilson Contr., 10, 1921 (181-198), from the corrected radial velocities in table
Vl. .
2 Astron. J., 31, 1918 (130-131).
8 Mt. Wilson Contr., 11, 1922 (322).
4 Russell, Adams and Joy, Publ. Astr. Soc. Pacific, 35, 1923 (193), give values for the
mean masses that would make the "giants" nearly twice as massive as the "dwarfs"
of these spectral types.
' Astron. J., 35, 1923 (141-144).
ON A POSSIBLE RELATION BETWEEN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS
AND STARS OF HIGH VELOCITY
By J. H. OORT
YALZ UNIVERSITY OBS1RVATORY, Nuw HAVEN
Communicated, April 28, 1924
Several facts are known that might suggest a connection between
globular clusters and stars of high velocity. The ten clusters for which
radial velocities have been published by Slipherl give an average velocity
of 140 km., well comparable with the higher star-velocities. The motions
of the high velocity stars are known to be directed toward one hemisphere
of the sky,2 the center of which lies in the galactic equator at about 2300
longitude; the directions of the radial velocities of these ten clusters lie
between 1230 and 3340 galactic longitude and therefore fall practically
within the same hemisphere.3 Stromberg has remarked that a recent
computation by Lundmark, with the aid of seven unpublished radial
velocities gives a- systematic motion of the clusters which nearly coincides
with that of the stars of highest velocity.4 It may be of significance that
the mean antapex of the high velocity stars has been found to shift with
decreasing average velocity towards lower galactic longitude3; that is,
in the direction of the hemisphere in which nearly all the globular clusters
are situated.
It has also been shown that the short-period Cepheids which are the
typical variables in globular clusters generally have high velocities with
the same characteristics as the other high velocity stars.
One of the most striking peculiarities of the globular clusters is their
general avoidance of mid-galactic regions,5," only one globular cluster
being found within 50 of the galactic equator. Figure 1 shows the dis-
tribution according to the sine of the galactic latitude for the 88 clusters
known to be globular.6 Part of this avoidance may be explained by the
existence of dark absorbing matter in the Milky Way7; Shapley however,
has pointed out that there are several indications which favor the hypothe-
VOL. 10, 1924 ASTRONOMY: J. H. OORT 257
sis that globular clusters actually do not exist near the central plane of
the galaxy (the minimum distance from this plane observed being 1200
parsecs).
It seemed of interest to inquire whether the total motions of the high
velocity stars show an analogous avoidance, which might exist if these
stars were in some way related to the system of the globular clusters. Dr.
Str6mberg very kindly sent me a list of 89 stars whose total velocities after
the solar motion had been subtracted were higher than 100 km. I recom-
, 12-
cn
0 8H flD | ( \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~GLoo.
CLUS. IP
0 w2
0~~~~~~~~
0 FG0
0 1 =0A0
42 - -I 0-0 I II 4001 1-- 00
0 0 00 F0.S 0
8-~~ VCL'S > 0 KM
-100~~~~
Comparison~~.:5
the0
of0 gaatcds-iui
fgoua lses ihta fteat-0
a-~~~~ie oftemtoso ihvlct0tr
puted the toal motions o the 82 star for which prallaxes, raialeoc3 e
and proper motions had been published. Mt. Wilson spectroscpi arl
4-esweeue nti optto fsmle hn0"5;frtenae
strIuedtionmtrcdeemnains n diio poisoa
I used trigonometric1determInatIons
stars nI I a provIsoa
258 ASTRONOMY: J. H. OORT PROC. N. A. S.
computation of lower velocities, from 40 to 80 km. was made in which
only radial velocities published before 1923 were used. After correcting
for solar motion the galactic latitudes of the antapices were computed.
The results for 126 total velocities higher than 80 km. are shown in figure 2,
giving the number of antapices for intervals of 0.05 in the sine of the
latitude. Beyond ° galactic latitude the antapices show a strong in-
crease in frequency towards the galaxy, but between +60 and -6°, where
a maximum might have been expected, is a decided shortage of antapices.
That this phenomenon is not due to a local group of velocities is shown
by dividing the antapices into three groups of different galactic longitude.
The avoidance is exhibited by each of the three groups.
The probability that the shortage of motions in the plane of the Milky
Way is due to chance is presumably small. Moreover the following
consideration furnishes independent evidence for the reality of the phe-
nomenon. Assuming a probable error of 20% in the parallaxes, the average
probable error of the sine of the galactic latitude of the apex is about
= 0.04; accordingly the appearance of an avoidance of this narrow belt
must have been considerably obscured by the errors in the parallaxes. In
order to test this I divided the stars into two groups, those for which the
angle x between the great circle through the star's apex and the star, and
that through the apex and the galactic pole is larger than 450, and those
for which it is smaller. The frequency-curves for the two groups are
shown in figures 3 and 4; the average probable error of the sine of the
galactic latitude is evidently three times as large for the stars represented
in figure 4 as for those in figure 3. Supposing that the gap shown by
figure 2 were accidental, we should expect figures 3 and 4 to have approxi-
mately the same appearance. Now the ratio of the number of antapices
between +60 and -6° galactic latitude to that between -60 and 120
is 0.4 in figure 3 and 1.6 in figure 4. The chance of a difference of this
magnitude in a certain direction is about one thousandth, bringing the
total probability of a chance coincidence somewhere in the neighborhood
of one millionth.
The strong concentration towards the Milky Way (only 7 out of the 65
antapices have a latitude higher than 300) and the two sharp maxima
on each border are very striking in figure 3. In a previous paper3 I have
drawn attention to the fact that the characteristic property of moving
towards one hemisphere which is so strongly exhibited by all the stars with
velocities higher than 66 km. disappears almost entirely below this limit.
The Mt. Wilson radial velocities which were published after that article
appeared agree well with the rather sudden change in the asymmetry of
the velocities at this point. The distribution of the antapices of stars
with total velocities between 40 and 66 km. does not disprove the existence
of the limit: the curve in the last diagram which represents this distribution
VOL. 10, 1924 ASTRONOMY: J. H. OORT 259
for the stars with x larger than 450 does not show any trace of a minimum
in the Milky Way. On the other hand the stars with velocities between
80 and 100 km. still show the avoidance as far as the scantiness of material
permits us to judge. We cannot make use of the velocities between 66
and 80 km. because of the large probable error existing in the lengths of the
velocity-vectors. The question whether the secondary maximum at -200
latitude shown by figure 5 (and which is more or less visible in the other
curves) is real must be postponed till a more complete investigation.
From the foregoing it appears likely that the avoidance of the galactic
plane by the velocities higher than 80 km. is real and not an appearance
due to local streams of stars. This peculiar characteristic would at first
sight seem to point to a direct connection with the globular clusters;
there are also other peculiarities in the motions of the high velocity star
that would favor the hypothesis that these objects had actually escaped
from the system of globular clusters. Our knowledge about the motions
and the arrangement of the clusters, and especially about the velocities
of these stars, is, however, so preliminary that it does not seem of much
use to work out the consequences of such a hypothesis before more data
about high total velocities have been collected.*
It may be of interest to mention briefly the other objects which show an
avoidance of the Milky Way.
It is well known that the spiral nebulae are totally absent from the region
near the galactic equator. A remarkable feature of these nebulae is that
their belt of avoidance is more than twice as wide as that of the globular
clusters: in the drawings published by Reynolds9 no spiral is found within
120 of the galactic equator although with a random distribution we should
expect to find about 80 nebulae below this latitude. Except perhaps for
the stars constituting the clouds of the Milky Way the only other objects
that seem to occur less frequently in the central parts of the galaxy than
on its borders are the planetary nebulae. I counted the numbers of these
nebulae in different galactic latitudes from the list published in Volume
XIII of the Lick Publications. The frequencies show a very strong in-
crease towards the lower latitudes except for a probably real and not local
deficiency between +30 and -3° latitude, where only 12 nebulae are
counted, whereas the number we should expect from the rest of the curve
is about 35. Here the apparent zone of avoidance is much narrower than
in the case of the clusters and can possibly be explained by absorbing
clouds. But the fact that neither the most distant c-stars'0 nor the open
clusters'1 show any trace of this absorption would then indicate a very
great average distance (presumably over 2000 parsec) for both the required
obstructing matter and the planetary nebulae.
* It may be remarked that the hypothesis of an extended ring of obstructing matter
such as has been suggested to account for the absence of globular clusters from the central
260 ASTRONOMY: W. J. L UYTEN PROC. N. A. S.
parts of the Milky Way could hardly explain the shortage of high velocity-apices in
those regions: in order to diminish the speed of a passing star perceptibly the mass of
this ring would have to be of the order of 1020 stars or 1010 times the mass which Kapteyn
attributes to the whole stellar system. According to the theory of relativity (De Sitter,
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 77, p. 176) a ring of this mass cannot exist at a distance of
the order of that of globular clusters, as the resulting shift toward the violet in
the spectra of globular clusters and spiral nebulae would be much greater than the ob-
servations permit.
1 Pop. Astron., 26, 1918 (8).
2 This was first observed by B. Boss, Ann. Rep. Director Dep. Merid. Astr., Carnegie
Inst. of Washington, 1918.
3 Oort, Bull. Astr. Inst. Netherlands, 1, 1922 (134).
4These PROCEEDINGS, 9, 1923 (315).
5 Shapley, Mt. Wilson Contr., 8, 1918 (134-139, 218-222, especially 314-319).
6 Mt. Wilson Contr., 8, 1918 (314), H. C. 0. Bull., 776, 1922.
7 Charlier, Lund Meddel., 2nd Series, No. 19, 1917 (Plate VII).
8 Mt. Wilson Contr., 9, 1920 (423).
9 Mon. Not. R. A. S., 83, 1923 (147-152).
10 Schilt, Bull. Astr. Inst. Netherlands, 2, 1924 (49).
1 Shapley, These PROCEZDINGs, 5, 1919 (344-351).
NOTE ON SOME STATISTICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE
LUMINOSITY LAW
By WILLEM J. LuYvrzN
HARvARD COLLEGE OBSZRVATORY
Communicated, May 5, 1924
The luminosity curve derived by Kapteyn and'van Rhijn is based on
considerations of parallactic motions, and, as far as the part near and be-
yond the maximum is concerned, on the available material of numbers
and parallaxes of stars with large proper motion. Although the rapid
accumulation of the last two kinds of observational data will make a re-
vision of the luminosity curve possible in the near future, it may be of
interest to compare the statistical behavior of certain groups of selected
stars with that to be expected from the luminosity law and some auxiliary
assumptions, principally the velocity law.
For some parts of the sky our meridian and astrographic catalogues
give complete lists of stars, brighter than a given apparent magnitude
and with proper motions exceeding a given value. It is then an easy matter
to derive the frequency function of H = m + 5 + 5 log ,u for these stars.
A simple theoretical' expression for this frequency curve F(H) may be
found in the following way.
The number of stars whose distances lie between r and r + dr, whose
