Connecticut western news., 1882-11-29
SPOTS ON THE SUN.
Little Matter in the way of Science that
 will be Understood.

Little Matter in the way of Science that
 will be Understood.
 It is generally agreed to by scientific men that the spots on the sun are the primary cause of the magnetic storms that have lately taken place. These spots or chasms on the suns surface are no mean affairs. The philosopher of the New York ,S,oe says that, "counting the whole surface covered by the various nuclei and the penumbral net ill which they appear to be entangled, it is not less than 6O,O0O miles long by 40,OOO 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 area included in that tremendous congeries of sun chasms."
 "So those queerly shaped black spots are holes in the sun, are they?" asked the reporter.
 "Yes," replied the astronomer.
 "And what is the shadowy veil that surrounds 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 the Andes are rows of mere ant-hills."
 "What are those white feathery-look- ing points projecting here and there over the chasms ?"
 "Clouds ir. which iron and other metals are floating in the form of metallic vapor. What do you suppose you could see If you could stand upon one of those pro- jecting points suspended over sun chasm ?"
 The reporter couldn't tell.
 "Let us make the absurd supposition that your body would not in the mil ionth part of 8 second be turned into vapor," said the astronomer, "and let us also suppose that you could for an in stant retain conscious existence amid the crash and roar of solar action, where the noise of the bursting of world into fragments would be indistinguishable from the universal clangor, and I will try to give you 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 a thousand, ten thousand, twenty thou sand miles, and condensing, fall back in an unimaginable blazing rain. The sides of the chasm over which you hung, gap ing wide enough to swallow this whole earth, would appear as cataracts of glow ing vapors, partially condensed and tr1mbling downward to an awful depth. Some students of the sun have attempted to measure, or rather to approximately estimate, the depth of sun spots, and they put it at from 2,O00 to 5000 miles In the case of so large 8 spot as this one we may safely assume that it's depth is equal to the maximum esti- mate.
 "You would behold cyclonic motions in this sea of fire producing fearful whirl- pools, and the rushing and 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. Ihave seen such bridges disappear in 8 few minutes. Then, if you fell into the chasm, still as- stunning that you would not instantly 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 mass of fiery gases, in which, probably, all of the elements that compose the solid earth would be repre- sented
 s'As you sank lower and lower the gases, while yet retaining their other proper ties, would resist your descent like an ocean of tar, the effect of the tremendous temperature and pressure to which they are subjected"
 ''But would I find nothing besides gas in the sun ?" the reporter asked.
 Probably not,'' the astronomer, re- piled, "but you must recollect that this is matter of theory. Astronomers are only trying to account for what they sec in ways that appear most consistent and reasonable. It is long step from the gaseous theory of the sun which is now widely accepted, though in somewha; varied forms, to the theory of Sil William Herschel, that the body of the sun is cool, inhabitable world, separat ed from the glowing surface which we SC by protecting atmosphere. But no body holds that theory now. The fable( salamander would find the sun too ho for place of residence, and the deepe he got the worse it would be-
 What We Send Abroad.