The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-09-06
THE MYSTERY OF THE SUN.
what Is Sought to he Discovered at the
Eclipse III December.

what Is Sought to he Discovered at the
Eclipse In December.
The number of astronomical parties
that are preparing to go to convenient
points in the track of the total solar
eclipse in December, and the complete
ness of the equipments they propose to
take with them for ofJsSrvation, make
the prospects for good results unusually
hopeful. The comparatively infrequent
opportunities for studying this species
OF solar phenomena, and the brief time
that is available under the most favor
able circumstances for observation, make
each event of great importance to as
Economical science, particularly as at no
other time can SO much evidence be OBJ
tanned for determining the real character
of the sun and its appendages.
Long as the science of astronomy has
flourished and great as has been its ad-
vance, it is only within few years that,
by the aid of the spectroscope and pho
tography, the nature of the sun and its
surroundings has been established with
anything like certainty, and even now
the most widely different theories are
held as to the character of the suns ac-
tivity. 1t has long been known that
around the black disk of the moon in to-
tai solar eclipses halo of light is seen,
bright next to the sun, but fading away
more or less gradually into the black
ness around it. This was supposed by
the generality of astronomers as late as
1870 to be due either to the effects pro-
duced by our own atmosphere or by the
moons atmosphere. twas not till later
that astronomers were convinced that
this halo or corona was part of the sun
itself, and that from it must be derived
the most important clews for settling
the mysteries of the suns heat and
light.
From the observations of eclipses made
recently it is now well known that the
sun as ordinarily visible to us, bounded
by the photosphere, is only part of the
sun. Just outside the photosphere is
comparatively thin layer of gas, mainly
hydrogen, called the chromosphere;
around this is the corona, thousands OF
miles thick, and around the corona, es-
pecially along the equator, there isl con-
siderable extension of matter about
which little is known. The general
theory which has been built up from
knowledge of these facts and from the
observations of such phenomena as sun
spots and prominences is that the chemi-
cal elements are being continually tossed
about i'll the enormous atmosphere of the
sun and never getting out of it. The out
er layers of the atmosphere are recog-
niZpl . n1urh pnnlap that, ba
Cool or comparatively cool masses of
matter are produced by condensation in
the upper regions from the hot ascend
ing vapors of the lower atmosphere.
These masses of matter, having gathered
weight, come under the influence of
gravitation over twenty-five times as
great as ours, and fall with almost in
credible rapidity toward the center. 1t
Is supposed that these terrific rains of
cooled matter upon the sun produce
what are known as sun spots.
We know how small meteorites in our
own cold atmosphere are heated to in
candescence by friction. Their kinetic
energy is transformed into heat 1t is
not difficult to imagine, therefore, that
these masses of matter darting dowr
from a great height above the photo
sphere of the sun, creates great disturb
ances near the photosphere, such as sun
spots indicate, and that masses falling
into the inner and greatly heated atmos-
phere should be broken up in the heat
generated by their own kinetic energy
into hot vapors, producing such expan-
sion that the down rush is transformed
into an up rush, which would carry the
chemical elements back to the cooler air,
where they would gradually condense
again and repeat the operation of falling
into the chromosphere. The effect of
such an up rush is supposed to be indi-
Gated by the prominence observed. The
matter is supposed to be thrown up like
the water of fountain and like it thrown
back, only to be tossed up again, but on
so great, 50 terrific a scale that the imagi-
nation is unable to form a picture of It,
If this is the correct theory of the sun 8
existence, it is impossible to conceive of
any limit to it. Elements which we can
only heat into glowing mass are there
reduced to vapor, and by expansion
thrown 100, 900 miles or more away, only
to cool and pelt back again toward the
center of attraction, there to be thrown
off again. But effective as the theory is
in explaining solar phenomena, it is by
no means generally held, and among
those holding it there are great differ
ences of opinion. The evidence is little
better than circumstantial, and it is only
by the industrious work of astronomers,
with improved appliances, that the mys-
terry can approach solution. The study
of the sun is TO us the most important
study in astronomy. 1t affects us di-
rectly. To better understand this center
OF life and heat is to better understand
our own surroundings, and it is from the
observations of those sent out to view
the occasional total eclipses of the sun
that light must come -ProYidence