The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-08
Is the SUN Hnhabitedc

Is the sun Inhabited?
M. Amedee Guillemin concludes his re-
cently-published work on the sun by discuss
ing the question, els the sun inhabited ?"
The physical constitution of the sun, he
says, is so adverse to the existence of animal
life ON its surface, that the question would
be hardly worthy of consideration if it were
not for the fact that some men of high scien-
tific character have answered 1t in the affirma-
tive. In 80 answering it, however, they have
assumed that the known laws of physical
phenomena which prevail upon the earth do
not manifest themselves in the same way
upon the solar globe, which may therefore be
inhabited by living beings constituted diff
ferently from any on earth, and able to en-
dure the high temperature to which they
must necessarily be subjected. 1t was also
believed by many philosophers, until re-
Gently, that the solar globe, or nucleus, was
comparatively dark and cold, being separated
and preserved from the radiating photosphere
by thick layer of cloud, endowed with the
property of absorbing both light and heat.
M. Guillemin opposes both these theories,
and thinks there is no reason to believe that
the laws of physical phenomena are different
at the sun from what they are on earth,
while he pronounces the hypothesis of dark,
cold nucleus no longer tenable under the
light of late discoveries. He argues that the
interposition of matter acting as q screen,
either opaque or endowed with very weak alb
sorbing power for light or heat-supposing
its existence to be proved-would only settle
one thing namely, that the internal nucleus
is not heated by radiation. But if the pho
tosphere is really in contact with the cloudy
layer of the penumbre, it must transmit its
heat by conduotion; as it envelopes the solar
globe entirely, it must heat it at every point
of its surface, and even if the conducting
power were very slight, equilibrium of tempe
rature would, in time, be establishedin the whole
mass, and this temperature cannot be lower
than that of fusion. Gases are, it is true, very
bad conductors of heat, but their conduction
| is not nil, and, its effects being accumulated
for centuries, it is easy to see that equilibrium
| of temperature between the photosphere and
| the nucleus must be established. We must
| not forget, moreover, that gaseous matter
| gets heated throughout its mass by connection,
| or transportation of the heated portions by
circulation among the cooler portions; and,
unless we suppose it to be absolutely
at rest, its heat must thus be propagated very
rapidly. Now, the phenomena of the spots,
| their rapid transformations, the movements
| which these transformations must cause,
either in the different layers of the pho
tosphere or in the deeper regions of the solar
globe, appear to place beyond doubt the con-
slant mixing of the different layers by con.
tinual interchange Of heat.
1t is, therefore, extremely probable that the
entire globe of the sun has very high tenn
perature throughout its mass-a temperature
which surpasses the melting or boiling points
of most of the elementary substances O.
which spectral analysis has revealed the ex
istence in its atmosphere. At the same time
4 it is evident that the concentric layers, o
which the solar globe may be supposed to b.
formed, exert one upon the other considerably
pressure, since we find that, at the surface
itself, the intensity of gravitation is twenty
eight times as great as upon the earth S sur
face; this pressure may hinder fusion to
certain extent, but not incandescence. Blu
the hypothesis of a liquid incandescent-o
even a gaseous-nucleus is the more pro
bable.
However that may be, it is absolutely i'm
possible to understand how any living beings
animals or vegetables, could live in such con
ditions. 1t is all very well to conjure up
fantastic romance as to the kind of peopl
who live in the sun, to imagine them dwellin
in kind of hot-house, and observing the six
: through the openings produced by the spots
but that is mere imagination, and not sc
| ence.
True it is, that the physical constitution G
the sun is yet too slightly investigated to eI
able any one to make an authoritative state
ment on this subject; we can only rely upo
probabilities, bnt in doing SO we must renal
| within the bounds of well-authenticate
facts we must not, in order to fave
any gratuitous hypothesis, imagine at will th
existence of physical laws different from thos
which observation and experiment have n
vealed. But this is the position taken up b
those who believe that the sun may be il
(! habited.
/ At any rate, there is one fact which the
! cannot get over, namely, the constancy
: solar light and heat-the prodigious expend
ture of light and heat which the thin el
: velope or photosphere certainly cannot suffit
to produce, unless its incandescent state
J; kept up by heat from the interior of the sun
O mass. Whether we adopt the meteoric theol
y or the transformation of gravitation into hea
i 1 we cannot suppose the internal nucleus
e the solar globe to be at a low temperature.
n In short, it appears extremely difficult
= consider the sun as a globe, inhabited /
,TT organized beings; we have no idea what so
,e of life could exist in medium at so high
q, temperature. All psychologists agree that !
y terrestrial being can exist in temperate
"a scarcely higher than one hundred degrees {
and it is not of one hundred degrees but
70 one thousand and two thousand degrees
70 heat we must speak, when alluding to q
f. strata of the solar globe Immediately benea
,e the photosphere. How can we concei
~ plants or animals living in a temperate
,e capable of melting metals ?-FrOm AppLet01
al journal.
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