The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-03-18

4
/ we may suppose as yet free to be gathered uD by
4 the sun. Even If the whole Of this were steadily
/ flowing in year after year, 1pon his surface, the
supply, Ii the whole of the suns annual ennis
| sion of heat had to be EXPLAINED by il. would
| last but for few decades of years. But even
/ this supply is not wholly available IN this way.
/ For large proportion of the meteoric
! systems existing within the suns domain travel
| on paths not carrying them near the surface OF
| the sun, nor capable or being altered by any OF
| the perturbing forces at work within The sol ar
system into paths interesting that surfaces;
that the meteors of those systems cannot at any
| time fall into the sun. Considering those me-
! teoric systems only known or unknown (neary
| all UNKNOWN which might help to maintain the
suns heat In the way imagined by Mayer and
| the rest, there probably is not enough material
| for ten years emission of solar heat while the
| actual meteorc indraught per annum probably
does not generate one-ten- nlilionth part of the
| suns annual emission of heat
Yet the meteor IMPACT theory involves the
1 idea underlying the exclamation of the suns
| heat The action of solar gravity which tends
| 20 draw meteors toward him $50 tending
| whore their actual movements are otherwise di-
rectedl is in reality the source both of the light
/ and heat of the There is not meteoric mat
/ ter enough for solar gravity TO work upon in
such as to generate the necessary amount
| of heat. But there Is other matter the materl-
4 al. namely, of the suns own globe. This has been
/ drawn inwards In the past Is being drawn in
| wards now, and will continue to be drawn in
/ wards, until a certain degrees of compression has
| been produced which has certainly not yet been
/ approached. So long the sun thus has not
only material TO work upon, but room las 1t
/
| lar light and heat will continue unchecked. For
the process a uniform one-not, like the IN
| draught of meteors, intermittent and unequal in
different periods.
/ But, although we have in this process OF con-
/ traction a sufficient explanation of the uniform
| generation of solar heat, and although not only
need we not look hey ond this process, but mani
| testify no other process can account for more
| than a very small fraction of the suns yearly
! radiation, yet this explanation by no means
moves ali the difficulties involved IN our prob
lem.
In the first place. the total supply of heat
which can have been obtained in the past in this
/ way seems at a first view inadequate to account
| for the amount of heat which we know that the
/ sun has emitted 1t seems absolutely impossible
TO reduce much below 100 coo. 900 of years the
1 period of which earth's crust speaks that
during which the sun has been at work upon the
| earth the degree at the present time.
| The deposition OF the various strata of the
earths crust has been process depending on
| the action Of rain, wind Snow and storm, on
| river action and glacier action-in fine, on
| processes due directly indirectly to the sun s
| heat. The work thus done upon the earth speaks
clearly of leo. 900 years of sun work. This
result is in way affected by the possibility
| that in past ages sun-work NAV have proceeded
| more actively than at present. This would
affect our estimate of the duration of the suns
activity In past ages. but not OF the
| totality of work done upon the earth's
| crust by solar action; and it is this
| total amount OF past suI-work we have now
| to consider not the mum Der of years occupied in
| it's expenditure. Now the recognition of the
| fact that the suns heat had it's origin in pro-
innate of the amount of heat thus generated If
| the sun had begun his career with twice his
| present volume his contraction to that volume
| would indicate the generation OF a certain
| amount of heat Had he had thrice his present
| volume more heat would have been generated.
| The larger suppose tho to have
| been the greater would be estimate OF the
| total amount generated and emitted while he
1 has been contracting to his present size But II
we imagine him to have been millions OF times
| larger than at present, billions. trillions of
| trillions; the total amount of heat generated in
| contracting to his present size would still not
exceed 20 600 of years emission at the pres
| ent rate.
Thus the sun appears to tell one story while
| the earth tells another. The earth says the
has been work for hundr ed million of years.or
| that at least he has poured out supply equiva
| lent to one hundred millions of years heat at
| his present bounteous annual rate: and on the
other hand the to tell that he has not
| generated by bis gravitating energy more than
fifth part of the amount of heat thus attributed
| to him the faith of our earth's evidence.
To account for the discrepancy, Croll. of Glas-
cow who first called attention IT, suggests
that the sun may have obtained much larger
supply of heat than the contraction theory
| would allow HIM by the collision of the masses
| out of which he was originally formed. He
/ existed in space which travelled with velocites
measurable by many millions of miles per sec
ond # bodies thus travelling came into COLI
| sion to form our sun tremendous heat would
be generated, which, il expended slowly and
uniformly might cover the suns expenditure OF
| heat during immense periods of time.
This seems to me somewhat too heroic way
ont of the difficulty. IL is. Of course, barely
possible That collisions such as Croll imaRines
might take place in the celestial spaces. but such
| collisions would be far too uncommon and n
frequent TO play noteworthy part in the econ
omy of the great system Of suns we cali the
1 sdereal system. Moreover. even If We suppose
| for moment that our sun got any considerable
| part of his heat in this way-by collisions be-
| tween smaller suns-it yet remains incredible
| that the heat thus generated would be emitted
steadily and in large quantities. There would
be an Outblaze sucn as occurred in the case of
| the so-caled New Star IN the Northern Crown,
| in 1866, but such steady supply of solar heat
as the condition of even the Oldest strata of the
earth's crust attests
1t is not in this way, / think. that the solu-
ton of the difficulty must be sought. But the
| discrepancy between the earth's record and the
evidence afforded by the suns apparent
must be removed In way 1t appears to
me that this may be best done by remem boring
| that the suns size as estimated by astronomers
! is apparent only. The surface of glowing clouds
| which forms the suns disc lies certainly thou
| sands and may possibly lie tens OF thousands of
miles, above the real surface. If the suns real
| globe Ia very much smaller than the globe we
see and measure, he has contracted in greater
| degree than had before supposed. and has
therefore generated and emitted more heat.
But, then, the other hand, if the SUM- being
| thus smaller than he looks, has done m UGH more
of his life work. he has much less vet to do.
| The duration of the a stable source of
light and heat hereafter must be much shorter
than we had estimated it to be when we consid-
cred his apparent size to be his real size.
Where, before, might recognizes the posi-
bility of his working active and benehcent
sun during tens of millions of years.
now only look. perhaps, fer a few millions of
years of sun work.
Yet after ALL this is a matter of small i'm
portance TO the human race, seeing that las
| have elsewhere shown civilized Is
providing for the extinction OF human life
millions of years before either the will have
lost his heat or the earth herself have become
unfit TO be the abode of living creatures
The most impressive result of the exclamation
of the suns heat to which science has thus been
led. Is that 1T presents gravity the true
of the light and heat of ali the stars-eince what
is true of one is true of the rest Gravity, the
essential property of matter (which We fondlv
call inert atter is shown TO be thus vertically
the life and soul of the universe itself-since the
light and heat of suns The life of the worlds
that circle round them and of all creatures liv-
ing on those worlds. RICHARD A. PROCTOR.