Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-26

BILE information regarding the interesting OBJ
servations lately made by Professor George E.
Hale, at the Mount Wilson Observatory, Cali
fornia. The latter has detected the existence
of solar whirls about sunspotS shown by the
spectroheliograph and that the whirls in con-
nection with the sunspots in the northern and
southern hemisphere are revolving in contrary
directions.
The existence of these solar whirls would re-
quire the presence of magnetic fields, if the mega
tive ions were separated from the positive ions
in the whirling gases and vapors. Experiments
have proved this to be the case and that the
magnetic field is due to the revolution of cleo
trically charged particles.
The spots are probably shallow depressons
in the visible surface of the sum- filled with
gases and vapors, which are cooler than the
surrounding regions, and therefore absorb
considerable portion of light and make the spot
look dark. Their diameter varies all the way
from five hundred miles in the of a very
small one to fifty thousand miles in the
of large sunspot but their depth seldom ex-
ceedS two thousand miles.
SunSpotS are doubtless tremendous atmoS-
pheric disturbances, caused by vast upheavals
of the suns surface. Could we look down on it
at close range, we should be deafened by the
uproar, as fierce cyclonic storms rage with
seemingly uncomfortable fury. We should see
fiery masses flung upward from the interior to
distance exceeding the diameter of our planet
many times, falling back in spray of molten
metal on the waves of a seethlng whlrl1ng
ocean of flames.
Gazing between the openings in the clouds
floating in the solar atmosphere, we should be
able to verify theory lately advanced by J. F.
Hermann Schulz, according to which a liquid
nucleus exists in the center of the sun. He de
duces this from the experimental evidence of
Moiseau and Others regarding the effective
temperature of the sun, which is supposed to
be about ffty-four hundred degrees Centigrade;
for even in the electric furnace, the temperature
of which is comparable with the suns effective
temperature, we have not yet reached the point
at which all terrestrial elements are truly boil
ing. This theory would explain why the sun is
cooler at the exterior than in the interior owing
to the fact that near the edge of the sun we get
radiation only from the atmosphere and the
tops or least-heated part of the sphere and
clouds floating in that region.
Intensity of the Suns Rays
A STRONOMERS are looking forward with
much interest to the observations to be
made this year at the Mount Wilson Observa-
tory, California, by c. G. Abbott director of
Washington. For number of years observa-
tons have been in progress there regarding the
intensity of the suns rays and the effect of any
variation in them upon the earth. There has
recently been erected on Mount Wilson small
permanent observatory specially designed for
this purpose. Mr. Abbott, with the assistance of
DR.. L. r. Ingersoll, of the University of Wis
consin, will study the problem of the intensity
of the suns rays during the next few months.
The expedition will also spend sometime on
the summit of Mount Whitney, where the insti
tuition has arranged to erect a SHELTER of stone
and steel for the of scientific investigators
engaged in researches of any kind for which
high altitude, dry air and clear skies are de-
sirable.
A New Telescope at Mount Wilson
DIR. RITCHEY, of the Solar Observatory at
l. Mount Wilson, has been at work in France
in behalf of a new telescope for Mount Wilson,
flector of one hundred inches diameter, which
has presented considerable difficulties The
glass disk for the sixty-inch rejecting telescope