The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-01-18

down to the fifth magnitude by Deem
| and its light has become greenish, al
most blue. It vas not until December
that really satisfactory observations
were made. Then II. Cornu obtained
the following very curious results: The
| Ii yht of the star showed the usual rain
bow-tinted streak crossed by dark linee,
which forms the spectrum Of a star or
sun, but on that rainbow tinted streak.
as on dark background, there was seen
the bright lines Of hydrogen, \ bright
line belonging to magnesium Gn the
state of growing vapor), and two other
bright lines, one OF which seemed to be
identical with a bright line shown by
our sun corona during a total eclipse.
CHOW, point TO which I would call
special attention is, that all the elements
of the catastrophe, if one may SO speak,
which has befalien the remote sun IN
the Swan exist in our own sun. At
times OF marked disturbance parts Of
our SUM- surface show the lines OF by
drogen bright instead of dark, which
means that the lines of hydrogen over
those parts of the sun are hotter than
the blowing surface of the sun there
We have all heard, again, how Tacchini
and Secchi, in Italy, attributed some ex-
ceptionally hot weather we had a few
years ago to outbursts of glowing mag
nesium. And, lastly, our sun is we'll
supplied with that element, whatever it
Is, which gives the bright corona during
eclipses; for we now know that the
whole OF the streakad and radiated coro
IA, occupying & region twenty times
greater than the globe of the sun (Which
itself exceeds our earth 1,25G. 600 in vol
ume) belongs TO the sun. Again, though
the sun has shone steadily for thousands
of years, yet SO far as can be judged, the
stars which, like this one in the Swan,
have burst out suddenly, blossoning
into flames of hydrogen, within which
the stars heart core glows with many
hundred times it's former heat, have also
been for ages shining steadily amid the
star depths. We know that the one
which blazed out 10 years ago in the
Northern Crown was one of Highlander s
list, 4 star of the tenth magnitude, and
that, after glowing with 500 times lis
H. e., A.,e
resumed thai feebIer Iustre We have
every reason which analogy can furnish
for balieying that the new star, which
was not III ArgeiandeF's list, simply es-
capped record by him on account of it's
faintness. It is now fast losing its sud
denly acquired Iustre, and is already in
visible TO tie naked eye. It appears,
therefore, that there is nothing in the
long continued steadfastness Of our sun
- source Of light to assure us that be.
too, may not suddenly blaze forth with
many hundred times his usual iustre,
(the confagration being originated, per-
chance, by some comet unfortunately
travelling too directly toward him.
Though he would probably cool down
again to his present condition in the
course of few weeks, no terrestrial OBJ
servers would be alive, at any rate, to
note the fact, though the whole series
of events haigiat afford subjects of inter
esting speculation to the inhabitants of
worlds circling round Sirius or Arcturus.
Fortunately, we may legitimately reason
that the risk IS small, seeing that among
the millions Of suns which surround
ours, within easy telescope range, such
catastrophes occur only 10 or u times
per century"