The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-04-15
A Storm on the Sun.

luminary shonein telescope with hardly
spot or a variation anywhere in bril-
liancy except the ordinary nothing,
which sometimes appears strikingly sug-
gestive OF mass of tremendous flames
on the tops of which the spectator is
looking down. Then spot of small
size appeared and moved slowly across
the disk. Presently congeries of little
spots broke forth like an eruption, sur
rounded by facule in glowing waves and
tortuous banks. In day or two theout-
lines of large spot could be seen coming
around the eastern limb of the sun. 1t
seemed to grow as it advanced In
short time white filament pushed its
way across the very centre of the spot,
looking like snow bridge over dark
chasm, and then the spot split In two and
slowly disappeared. Now the eastern
edge OF the disk began to be crowded
with on-coming spots. The wrinkled
lines of facule showed where the surface
was agitated, and where new spots We're
likely to break forth at any moment
They came in groups, and one huge spot
with a dark central chasm capacious
enough to swallow the earth seemed to
be their leader. Cloudy days intervening
interrupted the sight, but with every re-
turn of sunshiny weather the telescope
revealed new spots and new groups,
until now the sun is spotted like Loop
ard. The sight with a 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
PHpple depths the eye fancies it can de-
tect strange forms, mysterious creations
Of the sun, to little specks that but for
their congregating in the neighborhood
OF the larger spots would hardly be no.
ticed. 1t is beautiful spectacle, and
only systematic observations and meas
urements can convince the beholder
that he is Witnessing such battle of
elemental forces as this earth has never
beheld since it hardened from q rotund
mass of fiery gases into a firm and
habitable globe. A little careful watch
ing and calculation soon show the
real meaning of what the telescope re-
veals. IL is the heaving and lashing and
swirling of storm, not a storm in any
sense in which we understand the word
from our experience here on the earth,
but storm born, probably, in the inte-
rior of the sun itself, and exercising its
fearful energy upon a ball of glowing
gases. But those gases are in the most
unheard of and marvellous condition.
Among them are many whose names are
familiar to students of chemistry, and
which in our laboratories are airy things
that reveal themselves only by their eff
fects. In the sun they are heated up to
such a degree that no earthly chemist
would recognize them, at least not by
their conduct, for in that unparalleled
furnace they are freed from many of the
laws which chemistry imposes upon them
here. And more wonderful vet, men of
science tell us, so tremendous is the
pressure to which they are subjected in
that heart and center of gravitation that,
though they are gases still. they must
resemble in their mechanical behavior
rather tar or honey than the airy sub
stances which we know under their
names. These gases, continually as
cending or moving away from the cen
ter, become partially cooled at what APP
pears Gus as the surface of the sun, and
fall back in showers of hot, metallic
raini 1t is amid such surroundings that
the sun storms rage, and from such that
they are born.
Here is the most splendid field for dis
cOvery that is open to man in the physi-
cal universe. Science has learned a
great deal about the sun since the first
Herschel taught that it might be habit
able globe, but vet it has hardly reached
the threshold of knowledge in this direc-
ton. 1t has learned that the existence
of life upon our globe depends upon the
sun, and that any considerable change,
one way or the other, in the amount of
heat and light with which the sun sup
plies us would extinguish the little torch
of human existence and end the history
of our race. 1t has learned that the sun
is not the clear, calm. unspotted
and undisturbed luminary that it
was supposed to be before the
telescope and the spectroscope were
inv ented, but that it is, on the
contrary, the scene of the most tremen-
dous commotion, the sport of forces
mighty enough to dissipate the earth in
puff of fiery vapor. But whence the
sun derives its energy, what its compost
ton is, how long it will continue to sup
ply vitality to the system, whether it is
undergoing or is likely to undergo any
changes that may bring danger to the
earth, are all questions upon which more
light is needed before they can be salts
factorily and finally answered. Anybody
who wishes to assist in this search for
knowledge can easily and cheaply furn-
ish himself with the necessary means.
Telescopes are no longer very costly in
struments. A good one, made to order
by responsible optition, and furnished
with all the needful accessories, can be
purchased for half or even quarter of
the price of a grand piano. Even if no
discoveries are made with it, it will give
no end of instruction and amusement,
Observations made by persons not con
versant with the processes of astronomi-
cal science are not without value, pro-
vided they are carefully and accurately
made and recorded. The astronomers
are always glad to get such records, and
they know how to put them to good use.
The present sunspot period is now at
its height. 1t will in few months begin
to diminish, and then some eleven years
must elapse before another maximum is
reached. 1t is to be hoped that the pres
ant onr,ortunitv 'of ohtaininor more az.