The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-05-07
, sun STORMS.
Terrific Battle Of Elemental Forces
In The Great Luminary.

After time-of comparative quiet
another storm has burst upon the
sun. Two or three weeks ago the
great disk of the luminary shone in
the telescope with hardly a spot, or
variation anywhere ia brilliaucy
except the ordinary mottling. which
som etimes appears etriEiDgly sug-
gestiVe of a mass of tremendous
flames, on the tops of which the
spectator is looking down. Then a
spot of small size appeared sna
moved slowly across The disc Pres
emily a congeries OF little spotg
broke forth like az eruption, sur
ro1nded BY faeulee in glowing waves
and tortuous banks. In day or two
the oatlines OF g large spot could be
seen coming around the eastern limb
of the SUD. II seemed TO grow as it
advanced. In a short time a white
filament pushed lis wsy across the
very centre Of the spot. looking like a
snow bridge over dark Ghssm, and
then the spot split in Two and slowly
disappeared.
Now the eastern edge of Che disk
began to be crowded. with on-Coming
spots. The wrink killed. lines OF faeala
showed where the sarfsce WAS agi-I
tsted, and where new spots we're
likely to break forth at any moment.
They came in groups, and one huge
spot with dark central Chasm capa-
eious enough to swallow the earth
seemed to be their leader. Cloudy
days intervening interrupted the sight,
but with every return of sunshiny
weather the telescope revealed new
spots and new groups, until now the
sun is spotted like a leopard. The
sight with q magnifying power low
enough to show the whole disk at /
once is wonderful. The spots are of |
all sizes, from great Caverns in whose /
dark purple depths the eye fancies it
can detect strange forms, mysterious
creations of the sun, to little specks
that but for their congyegating in the
neighborhood of the larger spots
would hardly be noticed. It is q
beautiful spectacle, and only system
ATTIC observations and measurements
can convince the beholder that he
Is witnessing such q battle of ele-
mental forces as this earth has
never bsheld since it hardened from
a rotund macs of fiery gases into q
firm and habita5le globe.
A little careful watching ami
soon show the real mean
ing of what the telescope reveals. Il
is the heaving and lashiDg and
sWirling of storm, not 8 storm in
any sense in which We understand
the word from our experience here
On the earth, but a sterm born,
probably. in the interior of the sun
itself, aad exercising its fearful en-.
srgy upon q ball OF glowing gases.
But those gases are in the most IN
heard.of ard marvellous condition.
Among them are many whose names
are familiar to the students of chem
stry, and which in our labora-
ories are airy things that reveal
themselves only by their efesss. In
me sun they are heated up to such a
legree that no earthly chemist would
recognize Them. at least not by their
conduct, for in that unparalleled fur.
lace they are freed from. many of
the laws which chemistry imposes
lpon them here. And more wen
ierful yet, men OF science tell us, 80
tremendous is the pressure to which
hey are subjected in that heart and
centre of gravitation that, though
hey are gases still, they must re-
emble in their mechanical behavior
ather tar or honey than the airy
ubstances which we know under
heir names. These gases, centinu-
lily ascending or moving ava from
be centre, become partially cooled 4
t what appears TO us as the surface
f the sun. and fall back in showers,
( hot. metallic rain. It is amid
UGH surroundings that the sun storms
age and from such that they are
orn.-Ne1O York Sun.