Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1836-08-18
From the N. Y. Sunday Morning News.

| ly ignorance or knavery. ---fenShatc
1
From the n. Y. Sunday Morning News.
| SPoTs ON THE SuN.-The spots on
the sun, with but few exceptions, have
never been more numerous, or of q
larger size than they are at this pre-
sent time; and TO them is generally
attributed, and not without good rea.
son, the extraordinary low tempreture
which we have had This season. AS
tronomers differ very much as to the
causes of these phenomenons; and
probably no Improvement in the SCI
ence, will ever enable us 10 ascertain
their nature with certainty. If we
suppose the sun to be a solid and inha.
bitable body, surrounded at some dis
lance from it by dense masses oflumin-
Gus matter from which proceed our
light and heat, then most probably the
| appearance of spots is caused by aper-
lures or breaks in the surrounding
matter, through which we see the dark
and central body of the sun.
The elder Herschell entertained, and
we believe his son does so, likewise,
this opinion. On the other hand, if
we suppose the sun to be one complete
mass of igneous matter, formed solely
for the purpose of giving light and
heat to the solar system, and preserv-
ing by its attraction the order ard mo.
ton of the planets, then it is probable
the spots are caused by immense ca
verns, or excavations in the body of
the sun. Some have maintained that
these spots are occasloned by erup-
tons of the sun of its own matter,
which form bodies revolving round the
solar orbit at certain periods intercept
the rays projected towards the earth,
and occasion irregularities in the ex-
pansion ofradical matter, until launch
ed by centrifugal force into the re-
gions of space, they become new plan
cts or wandering comets. Either of
the two first hypothesis are, however,
considered better than the last.
What may be their nature and char
acter, or the causes that produce them,
upon the temperature Of our globe
which has been proved by abundant
observation 10 vary according to their
number and dimensions. De Lalande
in his History Of Astronomy, says
that in the year 53l, these spots occa-
stoned diminution oflight which last
ed fourteen MONTHS In the year 626,
their numbers darkened for great
while one half the disk OF the sun. In
1911, Skeiner counted as many as fifty.
In 1740, Cassini observed still larger
number, and in 1863, very large one
supposed to be four times as large as
our earth, being a minute IN length,
was observed at Paris. Since then,
the spots have not attracted much at
tention, until the appearance in 1912,
when seventeen spots were observed
by De Lambre, and other astronomers.
What is more reasonable than to attri-
butte to the presence or absence OF
these bodies the difference in the tenn
perature of different years There
are now, we believe, seventeen or
eighteen spots to be seen, many ofthem,
if not all, equal in size to our earth.
Is it strange that the interruption to the
transmission of light and heat from a
portion of the suns surface seventeen
times greater than our earth should be
perceptibe to us F? The wonder is, that
it does not produce still stronger eff
feet upon the weather, and occasion a
much greater reduction of temperature.