Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-11-01
THE SUN.
Newly Discovered Wonders.

In one year on the earth's surface
would melt stratum of ice COW
ering this surface one hundred feet
thick. Yet the earth receives less
than Observation-Disclosures part OF
the entire heatthrown out by the
sun into space.
The entire heating power Of the
sun is great enough to melt u solid
cylinder of ice forty-five miles in di-
ameter, and constantly darted into
the sun with the velocity of light,
or 1870, 600 miles in a second All
the mechanical agencies of the whole
world-the power held by our coal
fields, winds, running rivers, fleets,
armies cannons-are less than one
two-thousand-millionth part of the
calOric agency of the sun.
The most accurate Investigations
ahd the latest discoveries show the
mean distance Of the sun to be about
Dinety.one million miles, and about
three million miles further off in the
summer than in the winter. 1t is
about four million miles nearer than
was formerly supposed
The surface of the sun in round
numbers is about 1900, 100000 600
square miles, although all this sur
face is some seventy times brighter
than the Drummond light. Think
of its being removed so far off, like
the fixed stars, as TO become only -
twinkling point, and we may judge
family of the stars The solid con-
tents of the sun are 323, 900, 600, 000,-
600, 900 cubic miles.
All the planets together, if fused
into one globe, would still leave the
sun 600 times larger.
The weight OF the sun has been
ascertained by comparing its attrac.
ton to that of other known bodies
aud is 325, 600 times greater than the
weight of the earth It's real weight il
2,155, 1O6, $50, 900, 900, O00, 600, 900, 0OC
tons
A man weighing 200 pounds would
weigh on the suns surface, 5,4OO
pounds. On Venus, he would weigh
l86 pounds; on Mercury l04 pounds
and on Jupiter 400.
If the earth revolved on its axis
seventeen times faster than it now
does, centrifugal force would destroy
all weight. On the sun, it would re-
quire revolution on it's axis 132
times faster to produce the same re.
suit.
Heschel found with his great toles
cope that many of the stars which
make up the milky way, judging
from their size, were twenty-thre,
hundred times as far as tho neares
fixed stars-but beyond these a still
more remote and blended light came
showing the milky way to be unfath
enable. Light flying 10000 miles
in a second, must have been 10000
years in coming from those remote
stars.
The ancients knew that the sun
was large, from being seen alike
from remote places. Anaxagoras
thought it larger than Peloponnes-
sus-about enough to cover the State
of Ohio. Heraclitus beloved that
every star was q world in the depths
of space, surrounded, like ours, by
an earth and planets. Kepler and
Copernicus, thousand years later,
adopted the same theory.
Some Of the larger spots in the sun
have been found to be $4,000 miles
IN diameter. One was seen with the
greatest diameter or length $4,000
miles The earth, rolled into one OF
those craters, would be like an apple
in bashel basket.
Through the most powerful teles-
copes, the bright surface of the sun
does not appear uniform, but covered
with multitude of luminous lines
alternating with dark lines, crossing
in every direction, somewhat like
the grain of an engraving.
The spots change in size and shape
and the actual velocity of the NOV
ing edges has sometimes been a third
Of mile per second. Fifty spots
have been seen at Que time.
The red jets of light, which pro-
ject from the dark edges of the moon
during total eclipse, and which 80
many witnessed last summer in this
country, have been found by means
of that extraordinary apparatus, the
spectroscope, TO be burning hydrogen
gas The spectroscope has also
shown that there is an immense STRAIT
um of hydrogen gas in an incondes-
cent state surrounding the sun, ex-
tending to height of about 900
miles, and ABOVE this stratum rise, at
times, the columns of red promin-
ences, sometimes, 10000 miles high
Those who saw those columns last
summer at the time of the total
eclipse, estimated their height be.
yond the dark edge Of the moon to
be about one-sixth of the suns diam
eter, which would make them more
than 100, 900 miles high above the
suns surface.
The light and heat of the sun can
not be produced by ordinary com
bustion. II it were a mass of coal
(it is about as heavy as coa) suppli-
ed with enough oxygen to make il
burn with its actual degree of inten.
sity, it would be entirely consumed
in about 5000 years. It has, how,
ever, cooled nothing appreciable
since the earliest historical periods
and some philosophers think it can.
not be exhausted for millions Of years
by its present immense dissemination
of heat and light into space.
About sixty of ,the fixed stars
have been submitted to the ex
animation of the spectroscope, and q
certain degree of similarity of coDsti
tuition is found to exist among them
all, resembling our sun. Sodium
and magnesium exist in great
number, as well as hydrogen, iron,
bismuth, and mercury, ETC., shown
q unity in the creative power which
originated and sustains them.
ra-A paper printed in the Chinese