Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-20
THE SOLAR COMMOTIOE.
Only Fragments Now Remain of the Grent
SunspotNew Ones in View.

only fragments Now Remain of the Gren1
Sunspot-New Ones in View.
To the Editor of The Dispatch:
According to the latest astronomical ad.
vices, the great sunspoJ which covered all
area of ], 600 600, 000 square miles, has broken
up and is now represented by about 20 vIsi
BILE fragments 1t is also reported that new
spots have put in an appearance, but at SO
vast a distance from the location OF the parts
of the so unusually large one that they may
be considered as altogether new arrivals.
This, then, is an interesting epoch for those
who rake an interest in solar phenomena,
and it should, in 4 special way, afford an op-
portunity for observers to determine to
what extent, ii any, such solar manifesto
tiOns are responsible for aurorai displays on
our sky. 1t is not likely that these fra g
mentary parts as yet. in their aggregate,
represent much less surface than did the
original in its entirety, and these spots, then,
must have.an average area OF 1000, 600
square miles,
We, who are dwellers on a small sphere of
only a few thousand miles of diameter, and
whose surface has been stable during in-
mense periods of time, can have but small
conception of the vast surface Changes that
the present solar aspects imply. And yet,
in lesser way, our little earth WAS once the
seat OF fierce igneous activity, of seething
rolling pillows of incandescent flame, born
of the convulsions of our great luminous
parent, and inheritor in small way of that
parents characteristics.
But it is noteworthy, while such tremen-
dous events are trans piring on the sphere
from which We derive our light and life,
that across the gulf of SO, ,000,0O0 miles which
separates us the object Is so little felt. Tho
mornings and the evenings come i'll their
order, the seasons progress in their wonted
succession and terrestrial nature pursues
the even tenor of her way. 1t could not
well be otherwise Animated dlife-especially
higher animated
can only respond to stable con-
ditions; they simply are not,
during the reign of ebullition and commo-
tion. No form of life can be cogniZant of
what is now transpiring on the sun. 1t is
only in u little, feeble way that we may, with
whatsoever intellectual equipment may
possess, look across ana grasp, and then, in
the light of analogy and analysis, apply
what we learn to discover what has taken
place elsewhere.
But the present would be a remarkably
opportune time for L series of displays of
the aurora borealis, were it true, as is
alleged by some who pose as being scientific,
that these displays on the heavens are pro-
jected by solar disturbances. There is,
however, a group OF simple facts, each
weighted with its own special significance,
from which we may deduce with demon
strable certainty that an aurora is due to
combination OF causes very remote from
spots on the solar Disc and that the recent
display was only coincidence and not
solar consequence.
Why is the auroral phenomenon almost
constant in the region of the North Pole?
Why is there zone there where the mag
netic needle is imperative? Why does the
earth turn on her axis, and why is the mo-
tion from west to east?
Here is the field in which we must seek for
a solution of this problem, and once under
this at least in general way,
one gets to the summit OF the matter,
and the conditions under which an
auroral exhibition may then take place in
this latitude becomes a subject of easy COM
n.
WAMPUM Pa February 49,