Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1882-12-14
No. l..
A SUN SPOT.
The Violence Of Disturbances on the
the Face of the Orb of Day.
New York Herald. |


New York Herald
Since the great magnetic storm of Friday,
and the brilliant auroral displays last night"
day, perhaps you would like to look at the
sun spot that was probably at the bottom of
all this disturbance?' -
'To be sure would the reporter replied :;
"but do you mean to say sun spot caused
the magnetic storm ?'
"Well, to be more accurate, perhaps |
should say that the causes which led to
the formation of the sun spot also produced
the storm. tits impossible to particularize
very closely in this matter. What we do
know is that when sun spots are most numer
Gus and largest, then auroras and agnet
storms are most frequent and most violent.
This has been strikingly exemplified during
the present year; we have had two or three
great magnetic storms, and simultaneously
with each of the storms sun spots of extra
ordinary magnitude have been visible. |
caught sight Of the present great spot ust
coming around the edge of the sun On
November 13, and since then there has
been more or less electric and magnetic dis
turbance, eliminating in the marvellous
auroral outburst of last Friday. think
this spot is identical with the one which
made its appearance during the perihelion of
the great comet, but it has changed greatly
in appearance"
'Then it is visible without telescope?'
Easily Smoke piece of window glass
to protect the eye, and you can see the
great spot as conspicuous black dot on the
sum-
''It must be very large
Large! Enormous doesn't begin to ex
press it! Counting the whole surface cover
ed by the various nuclei and the penumbra
net in which they appear to be entangled, is
not less than 10000 miles long by 10000
miles wide. Take all the continents and
islands of the earth together, add to them
all the oceans, and spread the whole out flat,
and they would not cover one-twelfth of the
of sun chasms."
"Let me see it," said the reporter. Don't
keep me waiting"
The astronomer laughed and pointed the
telescope at the sun. After the reporter had
somewhat aecovered from his astOnishment
he began to ask questions.
$50 those queerly-shaped black spots are
holes in the sun, are they?"
eyes," replied the astronomer.
"And what is the shadowy veil that sur
rOunnS them %
THAT is also depression in the suns
surface, but not so deep as the black holes"
What are the white ridges around the
spot?"
Mountains of fire, or perhaps l should
rather say pillows, in comparison with the
size of which the Himalayas or Andes are
rows of mere ant hills"
"What are those white, feathery- looking
points projecting here and there over the
chasms?"
Clouds in which iron and other metals
are floating in the form of metallic vapor.
What do you suppose you would see if you
could stand upon one of those projecting
points suspended over sun chasm p"
The reporter couldn't tell.
"Let us make the absurd supposition that
your body would not, in the millionth part
of second, be turned into vapor," said the
astronomer, "and let US also suppose that you
could for an instant retain conscious exist
ence amid the crash and roar of solar action,
where the noise of the bursting of a world
into fragments would be indistinguishable
from the universal clangor, and will try to
give you a notion of what you would see.
Your horizon, supposing that Immediately
around you comparative quiet could prevail,
would be circle of fire, heaving tossing,
squirting, casting up showers of hot metallic
spray, while here and there fiery geysers shot
up with incOnceivable velocity, would rise
thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand
miles, and condensing, fall back in an un-
imaginable blazing rain. The sides of the
chasm over which you hung, gaping wide
enough to swallow this whole earth, would
appear as cataracts of glowing vapors, par
TALLY condensed and tumbling downward to
an awful depth. Some students of the sun
have attempted to measure, or rather to ap-
proximately estimate the depth of sun spots
and they put it at from 1000 to 5000
miles. In the case of so large spot as this
one, we may safely assume that it's
depth is equal to the maximum estimate
You would behold cyclone motions in this
sea of fire producing fearful whirlpools alak
the rushing and the clashing of vaporized
elements, driven by hurricanes that would
make playthings of mountains. The fiery
cloud-bridge upon which you stood would
be likely to be shattered to fragments at any
time l have seen such bridges disappear in
O AC" AiiAutSo. AACA IL yOu lCu tuUO tHt
chasm, still assuming that you would not in
stantly be turned to vapor, you would, after
your tumble of 5000 miles, strike no bottom
on which foot could be planted, but would
sink into a mass of fiery gases, in hich,
probably, all the elements that compose the
solid earth would be represented AS you
sank lower and lower the gases, while yet
retaining their other properties, would re-
sist your descent like an ocean of tar. the
effect of the tremendous temperature and
pressure to which they are subjected"
"But would / find nothing besides gas in
the sun ?" the reporter asked
Probably not" the astronomer replied,
but you must recollect that this is a matter
of theory. Astronomers are only trying to
account for what they see in ways that ap-
pear most consistent and reas enable. It is a
long step from the gaseous theory of the sun
which is now widely accepted, though in
varied forms, to the theory of Sir
William Herschel, that the body of the sun
is cool, inhabitable world, separated from
the glowing surface which we see by a pro-
tecting atmosphere. But nobody holds that
theory now. The tabled salamander would
lind the sun too hot for place of residence.
and the deeper he got the worse it would be-"