The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1899-12-29
FROM THE sun.
HOW LITTLE OF IT WE GET IS ALMOST
BEYOND CcLlEF.

sand Millions Altshts Upon This
Enrth-A Pen Picture of the Actu.
Condition OF the Fiery Orb.
The sun Ia for the most part simply
wasting his ~heat-dlnglng away the
golden rays that are the life Of the
world with a recklessness beside which
Ill human waste Is mere parsimony.
1t IL almost beyond belief. Scarcely
one sunbeam In 1000, O0O,ON nllghts
upon the earth, and allowing .r lhr
whole solar system not more than one
In 100, 1000, 900 ever hits anything, SO fur
AS we can ascertain.
Sir Robert Balls comment on this
waste Of the suns heat Is: Suppose Il
man with m income OF $1,0OO,OOO a
year. He spends for useful purposes
cent and throws the rest away. His
wastefulness Ia no greater than that
which this old prodigal the sun has
practiced for untold ages.
The untold amount Of heat which
thus leaks away through the cracks In
the sky cannot BE- expressed by figures,
1t Is only by considering what 1t might
do that we can get any conception OF
1t. This Ia probably the most striking
Illustration, and Is given by al eminent
astronomer:
Suppose a solid shaft Of Ice two miles
square to be extended like Il bridge
across the gulf which separates the
earth from the sun. II a track were
laid on It's surface an express train
running at full speed would require
more than $50 years to traverse 1t. Yet.
If the whole heat of the sun were turn.
ed upon 1t for n single second 1t would
be melted, and in a few seconds more
all, ever to the railroad iron, would
drift away as vapor.
But what Ia the source Of this heat
that flows Into space as the gulf
stream pours into the Atlantic. warm
ing the earth and other planets like lit"
tie islands In It's course? What keeps
up the supply?
If the sun We're merely u white hot
ball, gradually cooling, grandchil'
dren would indeed get a chill; or,
rather, neither they nor we would ever
have seen the sun. The final frost
would have fallen long ago.
Nor can the heat be maintained by
fire. rs we understand the word-such
fire MS warns and nov and then
our houses. II 1t were a
globe Of flaming coal 1t could have last
cd but a few thousand years; 1t would
have been burned to ashes long before
we were born, All the coal on the
earth would hardly keep the sun going
for one-tenth Of n second.
A falling meteor gives out great heat,
just as q bullet Is heated when 1t
the target. Some have conjec.
tured that a vast stream Of these little
ha~ilstones raining upon the u supplies
Its fuel. But II the whole mass Of the
moon were put into n stone crusher.
broken up and thrown against the sun.
1t would barely furnish heat for n sim
gle year. And no such weight could
possibly approach the sun without our
knowledge.
Yet. in It's own chosen way, the sun
really has It's fires. With proper In
we may see the red flames
spoutIng from its edge. sometimes to Il
height Of 400, 900 mlles-higher than
the moon fonts above tile earth. TO
some Of them our world would be no
more than a water drop falling from n
fountain.
TO gain any idea Of the almost mex
haustible reservoir from which the u
dra VS. It's heat we must first picture It's
actual condition. Matter there Is In a
state unlike anything ever seen upon
earth. 1t is neither solid nor liquid
nor In any familiar sense gaseous. The
sun IL a boiling, seething, flaming mix
ture Of the gases or vapors Of all the
condensed by the tremendous
squeeze Of solar gravity until 1t Is
than pitch. and so hot that It's
yaporIzed iron might be used for steam
power II there were any boiler fit to
hold 1t. 1t has no definite surface. but
away from this lncandescent
paste, through leaping flames of blood
red hydrogen to the faint streamers Of
The corona, as filmy az n comets tail.
This writing mass, heavier on the
average than water and yet as un-
stable as air, does not ever rotate like
other orbs, but swlrls around It's axis.
In the terrific tension Of these gases
stored up the energy Of the sur. As
this escapes In gushes Of heat they do
not cool, but slowly contract. It Is
quite possible that they even grow hot
ter as they thus settle downward and
compress themselves into a denser
fluid,
A total shrinkage Of 220 feet n year
will account for the whole expenditure.
md so small a change in the size of the
disk could not be detected until 1t had
been watched for thousands OF years.
This will go on until the substance OF
the sun ceases to be essentially CASE
Gus. Then will come the beginning Of
the end, for from that time forth the
SEXUAL temperature OF the sun will de-
fline.
This. however. will he In some fur
II, - trk 90