The Osceola times., 1881-01-22
Jupiter and Ills spots.

The last number of the .Ncicai.fr lmsri-
can contains "a communication from Mr.
Edward +. Bernard. of Nashville, giving
his own recent observations of the planet
Jupiter and his now Increasingly re-
markable spots. In 1878 the appearance
Of the great red spot in the southern
hemisphere of this prince of planets
excited the eager gaze Of astronomers,
who have ever since given il large
share of their attention. Ia October.
1879. the spot was surrounded by large
sea Of light, the great spot floating in the
liquid sea Of light. Jupiter was then APP
preaching that part of its orbit nearest
to the sun, and il has this year passed its
perihclion. but Mr.. Bernard says that as
soon as the planet emerged from the
ncighb0rhood of the sun sufficiently for
good observation the great spot was
found to have suffered no particular
change. save that the sea of light had
disappeared
The estimated size Of this light red
spot is about one hundred and fifty
million square miles. But it is 10y no
means the only mark of the kind ON the
monster orb. On July 25th last, Mr.
Barnard discovered an oblong spot cover
ing an area of about twenty-iour thou.
sand square miles. and on the night Of
August lG still another, remarkable for
its black tint and for being in the north
crn part of the planet, which for some
time has been singularly free from such
marks. Mr.. Barnard observed this last
phenomenon a second time on August
Is, but has reason to think it has since
disappeared But as late as November ,,
tl. I'n,,lill, ~ tpAp4tnpp '1nppn te
four or five spots on Jupiter of nearly Il
black tint, and though he mentions none
seen in the planets northern hemisphere,
his observations seem to confirm Mr.
Barnards
The import of these wonderful forma-
tions ON the breast Of this volcanic star
astronomers confess they cannot divine
with any certainty. That they represent
unusual activity in the fiery mass of the
planet itself none probably doubt. The
decp-hued orbs, it is generally agreed,
possess a greater store of thermal energy
than their paler brethren; and Jupiter,
with his broad, red equatorial belt and
great red spot, 10 say nothing of the dark
masulT now reported would seem to con-
firm this opinion, especially as he is so
remote from the sun that solar heat,
Mr. Proctor tells us, is insufficient to
evapOrate the water on the planet. If
these enormous spots are riffs in the
cloud-belts Of varying density which en-
shroud the mighty globe, the waste of
heat, radiated through the openings,
must be very great, and we must assume
that it is undergoing contraction; or, that
it is rapidly cooling. The latter supposi-
ton is almost forbidden by the evidences
Of eruptye energy and the tempests
which are sometimes seen TO sweep
through its atmosphere with volicity of
two hundred miles an hour If the spots
represent accumulations Of aqueous va
por in different degrees of density, and
which in the act of explanation absorb
certain colors of the solar spectrum, we
may, perhaps, conclude that the planet
is protected by its vapor-enclope from
the exhausting process of radiation, the
yapor that is condensed in the higher
strata of it, atmosphere being carelessly
replaced by evaporation from its water
masses But in neither case is it PROB
able, as our Observation-Disclosures assume,
that the oscillations of temperature on
this, the grandest of the planets, exert
any apprecatiable influence on the me-
teorology of our own orb.