The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1872-08-30

CHANGES IN THE sun,

REMARKABLE SOLAR DISTURBANCE--A
CHANGE IN THE SUMS LIGHT-sCIENTIFIC
OBSERVATIONS.
The London Spectator, in an elaborate
article on the state of the weather and the
influence of the sun says:
When we consider the intense heat
which has prevailed in Europe during July
and the circumstance that in America also
the heat has been excessive, insomuch that
in New York the number of deaths during
the week ending July 6 was three times
greater than the average, we are naturally
led to the conclusion that the sun him
self is giving out more heat than usual
Though not endorsing such an opinion,
which, indeed is not warranted by the facts,
since terrestrial causes are quite sufficient
to explain the recent unusual heats, we
cannot refrain from noting, as at the least,
a curious coincidence that at the very time
when the heat has been so great, the great
central luminary of the solar system has
been
THE SCENE OF A VERY REMARKABLE DIS
TURBANCE,
an event, in fact, altogether unlike any
which astronomers have hitherto observed.
1t will not be unknown to our readers Gin
these days, when every one knows every
thing about the SUM that astronomers no
longer confine their attention to the actual
aspect of the solar orb. BY continuance
which need not here be described, the as
tronomer can tell what is going on in q
certain gaseous envelope surrounding the
sun, which to ordinary telescope research
is altogether invisible except during
eclipses. This envelope, some 1000 OF
5000 miles deep, is called the chrome
sphere, (by purists the chromatosphere, J
and consists in the main of glowing by.
drogen, but in the lower strata contains
the glowing vapors of sodium, magnesium
and many other elements. These, however
are ordinarily so low down that they car
scarcely be recognized under the ordinary
conditions of
THE NEW METHOD OF OBSERVATION,
except here and there round the suns disc
1t is as though our earth were examined
by some highly ingenious astronomers il
Venus or. Mercury, who could recognize al
times the .vapor of water in our air, where
it rose pretty freely and to a considerable
height above oceans, but not over the con
tinents, because less vapor there arose into
the air. Only in the suns case the vapors
are not, like the vapor of water on earth
at cool and pleasant temperature, but
are such vapors as rise above the molter
surface of metal in our furnaces. They arc
at 80 high temperature that wind otsucl
vapor, blowing, as such winds do, over tht
surface of the sun, would be competent tc
reduce onr earth in few seconds to vapol
likewise. Now certain Italian spectrosco
pists-Respighi, Secchi, Tacchini and 9th
ers-have set themselves the task of keep
ing
A CONTINUAL WATCH UPON THE soLAF
CHRoMATospHERE.
They draw pictures of it, and of the
mighty colored prominences which are
from time to time upreared out of or through
the chromatospheric envelope. They note
the vapors which are present, as we'll as
what can he learned of the heat at which
rate of motion and other like circumstanc.
es. 1t was while engaged in some of the
more difficult and delicate of these tasks
that Tacchini noticed the strange occurrence
now to be described. haze Observed q
phenomenon" he says, "aohich is altogether
neo in the aohole series Of my o6seroations.'
Since May had found certain regions
in the sun remarkable for. the presence o.
magnesium" Some of these extended half
way round the sun. This state of things
continued, the extension of these magne
SUM regions gradually growing greater
until at length, ION June 49," says Tao
chini, 4" was able to recognize the presence
of
MAGNESIUM QUITE ROUND THE SUN,
that is to say, the chromatosphere was com
pletely invaded by the vapor of this metal
This ebullition was accompanied by an alb
sence of the colored prominences, while on
the contrary, the flames of the chromato
sphere were very marked and brilliant