Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1912-08-29
SPOTS ON THE SUN
They Indicate the Aging Of Our
Orb of Life and Light.
THE GREAT SOLAR TRAGEDY.
A Grim Play In Which tho "star" Is
Fighting For Existence, Has Abso-
lutsly No Chance to Win and Whose
Death Means the End of the World.

IutsIy No Chance to Win and Whose
Death Means the End of the World.
Life is a tragedy, the earth stage,
men and women the actors, the gods"
that this great play Of life IS more
comic than tragic in the opinion Of the
spectators.
However this may be, there is an
other, vastly greater, tragedy Of life at
which man himself is an onlooker, al
though, unfortunately, his own ulti-
mate fate is bound up with the denoue-
ment Of the play.
1t is the life drama Of the solar. sys-
TEN. Its chief actor IS the sun, and
men are beginning to rub their eyes
and wipe the spGcks from their glasses
as they perceive more and more plainly
indications that the star" Of the play
Is aging.
The fact is becoming only too clear
that for him this is no sport, but real.
deadly tragedy He is not acting
part, but fighting for life. He cannot
win; he can only prol0ng the struggle,
and when lie falls exhausted the stage,
the theater. actors. spectators, pit and
galleries will go with him In one uni
versal ruin.
Until recently we We're only troubled
little in mind by the sun spots 1t
was evident that they must cut off
some radiation, but the amount ap-
peared to be trifing, and their maxima
are far apart, ten or eleven years. But
now we are confronted by much
more disQuieting phenomenon. The sun
appears to "fuctuate at irregular inter
walls of several days and sometimes of
several months"
Here is the cruX Of the whole mat
ter. What does the recognition Of the
fact that the sun is veritable star
mean? What may it mean to the earth
and It's inhabitants? These questions
can best be answered by considering
other variable stars.
Let us take an extreme example.
There Is In the constellation OF the
Whale q famous variable star known
as Mira the Wonderful. In a period
of about ten months on the average II
changes from the third-sometimes the
second-magnitude to about the ninth
and then back again.
That means, in the extreme, a prob
able difference OF between two ana
three hundred times in the amount OF
light and heat which it radiates around
II at maximum and at minimum.
When it is faintest it cannot be seen
with the naked eye; when it is bright
est it IS a conspicuous object As II
fades it turns reddish in color, ana
when it brightenS it blaZes with bril-
liant spectroScopic lines.
1t is probably sun at least as great
as our sun. and it has recently been
found that its spectrum resembles III
some striking pcculiarities the spectra
Of sun spots.
Did it ever have any worlds to light
and nouriSh? II so think Of the ccndi-
ton of those worlds now.
A sun is ike a living organism-it
wears out. As it ages 1t becomes more
and more variable. 1t maintains itself
and its planets while its radiant power
lasts. but 1t Cannot do so forever. II
contracts. GirkerS. struggles. fades ana
goes out. It's lifetime is millions o.
years. bot l. has an cad.
Let us account as mere nothing
cried BosSuct. 'cvcrything that ends
for. though we should multiply years
beyond tn" reach Of numbers yet all
would be nothing when the fatal tern
Is reached Garrett L. ServiSs in Ne"
York American.