The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-20
sPECU1AT1oNsI IN SUN HEAT.
Can the Sun Shine on ForeverP-Has
the Orb Always Been LuminousP

From the Louisville Courier Journal
So far as our present knowledge goes it
would seem that the brightness of any
sun-like body is to be attributed solely to
the transformation in some fashion of
mechanical power into heat. To take our
own sun as an example, it is now anassured
doctrine that the heat so necessary for
our welfare is sustained by the gradual
contraction of the solar volume.
The energy available for trans
formation into heat in this process
seems sufficient to supply the radiation of
the sun, not only for ages such as those
which we reckon in the human period
but even throughout a lapse of time so
vast as that which geology demands for
the formation of the earth's crust writes
Sir Robert Ball in the F'ortnightly Re
view. But it is certain that the quantity
of possible light and heat to be dispensed
by the sun is limited in amount
The sun cannot shine on forever. A
time must assuredly come when the orb
at present so brilliant, will have no more
potency for the radiation Of light than is
at present possessed by the earth or the
moon In like manner it can be shown
that the materials constituting the sun
have not always been luminous. We can
not, indeed, say with certainty by
what influence their brightness
was originally kindled. 1t probably arose
from a collision, or an approach TO a col
lision. between two dark masses which
happened to come to an encounter with
enormous velocities in their progress
through space. 1t is, however, plain that
the ages during which the sun has been
brilliant form only an incident, to
speak. in the infinite history of that guam
tiJy of matter of which the solar system
is constituted.
Notwithstanding the millions, or thous-
ands of millions, Of years which that mat
ter has existed, il has perhaps, only once
become so heated, owing to circumstances
which we may describe as accidental or
casual, as to have acquired the ample
light-dispensing power of a sun. 1t is,
however. possible that such periods of
light-radiating capacity should have oc-
Cured more than once; they may posi-
bly, have occurred several times through
out the ages of time past. Nor Is it likely
that the last phenomena of this kind
have yet arrived.
TIE sun, after the lapse of amounted
years, will lose all its heat and pass into
a black dark mass. In that form it may
endure for an epoch so prOtracted that
the spell during which il has acted as
the luminary to our system will appear
but a moment in comparison with the
dark ages which succeed the solar splen-
dor.
But we can conceive that the darkness,
which is the doom of our system, need
not necessarily be eternal so far as its
materials are concerned; it may be that
again in the course of its wanderings
through space the tide o. chance may at
length bring the dark and tremendous
globe so near some other orb that another
collision should take place with appalling
vehemence. The solid materials shall
again become transformed into stupen-
dous glowing nebula, and then, in the
course of the tedious contraction Of this
nebula, another protracted period Of bril-
lance viii diversity the career Of the
great body, and may last long enough for
the evolution Of planets and Of whole
races of highly organized creatures. The
essential point of our present considera-
ton must not be misunderstood. A little
reflection will show that any periods of
brilliance must be regarded as exceptional
periods in the history Of each body.