The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-11-30
THE MAGNETIC STORM.
Brought About By Sun Spots-on
the Brink Of a Sun Chasm.

ogOpRoL Ap0Ut oy Jul SPSsS w
the Brink Of a Sun Chasrn.
"Since the great magnetic storm
of Friday, and the brilliant auroral
display last night" said the astron-
omer to the reporter on Monday,
perhaps you would like TO look al
| the sun spot that Tas probable at
the bottom of all this disturbance?
''To be sure 1 would" the repor-
ter replied; "but do you mean to
say sun spot caused the magnetic
Storm"
''Well, to he more accurate, per
haps should say that the causes
which led to the formation of the
sun spot also produced the storm
1t is impossible to p.rticularize
very closely in this matter. What
we know is that when sun spots are
most numerous and largest, ther
auroras and magnetic stoims are
most frequent and most violent
This has been strikingly exempt
fed during the present year; We
have had two or three great mag
netic storms, and simultaneously
with each OF the storms spots o.
extraordinary magnitude have beer
visible. l caught sight of the pres
ent great spot just coming around
the edge of the sun on November Is
and since then there has been more
or less electric and magnetic dis
turbance, eliminating in the mar
velous auroral outburst of last Fri
day. l think this spot is identical
with the one which made its APP
pearance during the perIhehon Of
the great comet, but it has changed
greatly in appearance.
"Can you see the spot with the
naked eye?'
Easily. Smoke piece of win
dow glass to protect the eye, and
you can see the great spot as a con-
spicuous black dot on the sun"
lit must be very large"
Large! Enormous doesn't begin
to express it! Counting the whole
surface covered by the various nu
clei and the penumbral net in which
they appear to be entangled, it 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 fiat, and
they would not cover one twelfth of
the area included in that tremen-
dous congeries 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
recovered from his establishment, he
began to ask questions.
$50 those quserly shaped black
spots are holes in the sun, are
they?"
Yes" replied the astronomer.
''And what is the shadowy vail
that surrounds them?"
That is also a 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 com
parison with the size of which the
Or the Andes are rows of
mere ant-hills."
"What are those white, feathery-
looking points projecting here and
there over the chasmsY'
Clouds in which iron and other
metals are floating in the form OF
metallic vapor. What do you sup
pose you would see if you could
stand upon one of those projections
suspended over a sun chasmY'
The reporter couldn't tell.
''Let us make the absurd suppose
ton that your body would not, in
the millionth part of a second, be
turned into vapor," said the astron-
omer, land let us also suppose that
you could for an instant retain con
sciOus existence amid the crash and
roar of solar action, where the noise
of the bursting of a world into frag-
ments would be indistinguishable
from the universal clangor, and l
will try to give you a notion of what
you would see. Your horizon, sup
posing that Immediately around
you comparative quiet could pre-
vail, would be a circle of fire, heav
ing, tossing, squirting, casting up
showers of hot metallic spray, while
here and there fiery geysers, shot up
with incOnceivable velocity, would
rise 1000, 10000, 10000 miles, and,
condensing, fall back in an I'M
imaginable blazing rain. The sides
Of the chasm over which you hung,
gaping wide enough to swallow this
whole earth, would appear as catar-
acts of glowing vapors, partially
condensed and tumbling downward
to an awful depth. Some students
of the sun have attempted to meas
ure, or rather to approximately esti-
mate, the depth of the sun spots,
and they put it at from 1000 to s.
600 miles. In the case of so large
n spot as this one we may safely as
sumo that its depth Is equal to the
maximum estimate. You would be
hold cyclonic motions in this sea of
fire producing fearful whirlpoOls,
and the rushing and clashing of
vaporized elements, driven by hur-
ricanes that would make playthings
of mountains. The fiery cloud
bridge upon which you stood would
be likely to be shattered to frag-
ments at any time. l have seen
such bridges disappear in a few
minutes. Then, if you fell into the
chasm, still assuming that you
would not instantly be turned to
vapor, you would, after your tumble
of 5000 miles, strike no bottom on
which a foot could be planted, but
would sink into n mass of fiery
gases, in which, probably all of the
elements that compose the solid
earth would be represented. AS
you sank lower and the gases, while
yet retaining their other properties,
would resist your descent like an
ocean of tar, the effect of the ire
mendous temperature and pressure
to which they are subjected"