Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-03-17
rHE BAlLY REC0RD-UNI0N.
STORMS III TIE SUN.


What problem it is that lies before as
tronomers when we consider what sun spots
really mean? The great atmosphere OF the
sun. whose breath is fame, is yet SO cool
compared with his intensely glowing SURF
ace that it absorbs large proportion of mis-
light az well as of his neat. It absorbs so
much that it actually changes his color
There can be no manner Of doubt, from
what Professor Langley has shown about
the absorptive qualities OF that atmosphere,
that were it suddenly stripped off the sun
would shine not only with greatly increased
brightness. but with blush violet color
In very short time indeed that color
would seem white again to our eyes, grown
accustomed to the change after which, the
sndden restoration Of the absorbing atmos-
uhere would change the sun to an orange
red orb. which only after awhile would
seem to our eyes a white globe as before.
But while the general absorptive action OF
the sun is wonderful, the story is still
more wonderful which the spsctroscope has
to tell about the specific ahsorptive effects
due to its constitution. We find that,
whereas in our air the vapor of water is
present Ito condense into water drops and
forms cloud at certain levels, and to change
to ice. CRYSTALS aud form cirrns at higher
levels), IN the sun the atmosphere is laden
with the vapors of iron, copper, zinc sodi-
um, magnesium, and like elements, to form
clouda OF metallic drops, great gatherings
OF metallic crystals, while the rains that
pour down toward the concealed true globe
of the sun are mighty showers Of molten
metal When 4 hurricane occurs In the
sun, the clouds which form the SUMS surf
ace are swept along, or whirled around, not
at the rate at which We measure cur
storms, but with velocity compared with
which their swiftest motion is as rest The
solar torDadOes rage, not over a few hun
dred square miles, but over regions es large
as the whole surface of the earth, over
hundreds, even thousands of millions of
square miles and they travel over these
enormous regions at rate not of so many
miles per heur or per minute, but of many
miles, sometimes more than . hundred
miles, IN every second OF time. Such
storms are in progress now where we see
the spots upon the sun. Such storms tell
us of the sctivity of that great central en-
CINE whose throbs are the life-beats OF the
solar system, We measure the suns work
peFforce, by our own forms Of work. We
speak Of his emission of light and heat as
corresponding to what would result from
the burning of eleven thousand millions of
millions of tons of the finest coal in every
second of time. But what mind can con-
ceive the real vitality of that mighty orb
which seems so silent and so still in our
skies +? The throbbiDg of the great engine
which beats out light and life to the whole
family of planets can only be seen by the
minds eye, and as yet that eye is no more
capable of seeing the suns work as it really
is than is the bodily eye of seeing the dist
ant millions Of suns which the great gaug.
ing telescopes of the Herschels bring within
our ken. Nor can the mental ear hearken
TO the uproar and tumult with which the
work of the great central engine is accom-.
plished, or imagine what would be heard If
one could visit that spot which looks like
tiny speck on the suns surface, and, pass.
ing below the limits of the solar air so that
sound waves could reach him, could find las
assuredly he would if he could live at
temperature which turns the hardest metal
into vapor) all forms of noise known to US
the roar Of the typhoon, the crash of
thunder, even the hideous groaning of the
srth-throe-surpassed miIlion-fold by
Whist takes place within every square mile
Of that disturbed region London Times.