The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1877-04-12
WILL THE SUN SOME DAY EXPLODE

S Mr.. Richard A. Proctor well known
as a Lecturer on Astronomy, gives s
t startling bit of news from the far of
regions among the stars. He says in
), the London (Eng.) Echo:
Our sun is one among hundreds OF
1 millions, each of which is probably,
1. like it, the center of d scheme of cir
: along through space, with its train OF
worlds, each bearing, perhaps, like
our earth, its living freight, or, more
probably, each, becoming habitable for
) longer or shorter period. Thus the
suns may be compared to engines. each
! drawing along its well freightcd train.
: Accidents among these celestial en-
gines seem fortunately to be rare. A
few among the suns appear suddenly,
that is in the course of a few hundred
years, which in celestial chronometry
amounts to mere instant, to have lost
a large part of their energy, as though
the supply of fuel had somehow run
short. Mishaps of that kind have
not attracted much attention, though
manifestly it would be serious mat
ter if our own sun were suddenly to
lose three-fourths of his heat, as has
happened with the middle star of the
Plough, or ninety-nine hundredths, as
has happened with the once blazing,
but now scarcely visible orb called
Eta, in the keel of the star-ship Argo.
But when we hear of the contrary
kinda sun suddenly blazing out with
more than a huhdred times its usual
splendor; a celestial engine whose en-
crgies have been overwrought, so that
a sudden explosion has taken place,
and the fires, meant to work steadily
for the train, have blazed forth to its
destruction we are impressed with
the thought that this may possibly one
day happen with our own sun. The
circumstances are very curious, and
though they do not show clearly
whether we are or not exposed to the
same kind of danger which has over
taken the worlds circling around these
remote suns, they are sufficiently sug-l
gestive.
On Nov. a, quite early in the eve-
ming, Professor Schmidt, the we'll
known director of the Athens Observ-
a,ory, observed a star of the third
magnitude, in part of the constella-
ton of the Swan, where no such star
should be. AT midnight the new stars
light was seen to be OF a markedly
yellow color. The news was, of course,
spread about among tine chiefs of the
principal observatories, and, as clear
weather permitted, the new conner was
submitted to the searching scrutiny of
rhe spectroscope. Unfortunately it
had already dwindled down to star
of the fifth magnitude by Dec. 2, when
first it was thas examined, and its
light had become greeaish almost blue
1t was not till Dec. 5, that really salts
factory observations were made. Then
Mr.. Cornu obtained the following |
very curious results: The light of the
star showed the usual rainbOw-tinted
streak, as on dark background, there
was seen the bright lines of hydrogen,
a bright line belonging to magnesium
Gin the state Of glowing yapoD and
two other bright lines, one of which
seemed to be Identical with bright
line shown by our suns corona dur
ing total eclipse.
Now, a point to which l would call
attention is, that all the elements of
the catastrophe, if one may so speak,
which has befallen the remote sun in
the Swan. exist in our own. at times
of marked disturbance parts of our
suns surface show the lines of hydro
gen, bright instead of dark, which
means that the flames of hydrogen
over those parts of the sun are hotter
than the glowing surface of the sun
there. We have all heard again, how
Tacehini and Secchi, in Italy, attrib-
uted some exceptionally hot weather
we had few years ago TO outbursts
of glowing magnetism. And lastly
our sun is certainly well supplied
with that element, whatever it is,
which gives the bright line of his
corona during eclipses; for we now
know that the whole of streaked and
radiated corona occupying region
twenty times greater than the globe of
the sun (Which itself exceeds the earth
l ,250O00 times tn volume) belongs to
the sun. Again, though the sun has
shown steadily tor thousands of years,
yet, so far as can be judged, the stars,
which like this one in the Swan, have
burst out suddenly, blossomine into
flames OF hydrogen within which the
stars heart-core glows with many {
hundred times its former heat, have
also been for ages shining steadily {
amid the star depths. We know that
the one which blaZed out ten years ago
in the Northern Crcwn, was one OF [
list, a Star OF the tenth '
and that, after glowing
with 500 times its former brightness l
for few days, it has resumed its Fee S
Bile lustre. We have every reason {
which analogy can furnish for believ- t
ing that the new star, which was not s
on Argelandcr's list, simply escaped {
record by him on account of its faint t
ness. 1t is now fast loosing its sud
denly acquiredt tlustre, and is already
invisible to the naked eye. 1t appears :
that there is nothing in the |
long continued steadfastness of our s
sun as a source of light to assure us !
that he, too, may not suddenly blaze ,
forth with many hundred times his /
usual lustre (the conflagratiom being ,
perchanee, by some comet {