Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1912-04-23
ON THE sun
They Indicate the Aging of Our
Orb of Life and Light.
THE GREAT SOLAR TRAGEDY.

A Grim Play In Which the "Star" ls
Fighting For Existence, Has Abso-
IuteIy 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"
the audience. Some pessimists believe
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-
tenn. Its chief actor is the sun, and
men are beginning to rub their eyes
and wipe the specks 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 a
part, but fighting for life. He cannot
win; he can only prolong the struggle,
and when he 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. II
was evident that they must cut of
some radiation, but the amount ap-
peared to be trifiing, and their maxima
are far apart, ten or eleven years. But
now we are confronted by a 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 a veritable stal
mean? What may it mean to the eartl
and its 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 a famous variable star known
as Mira the Wonderful. In a period
of about ten months on the average 1
changes from the third sometimes th,
second-magnitude to about the nintl
and then back again.
That means, in the extreme, a prob
able difference of between two anC
three hundred times in the amount o
light and heat which it radiates arounC
it at maximum and at minimum.
When it is faintest it cannot be seei
with the naked eye; when 1t Is bright
est it is a conspicuous object. AS
fades 1t turns reddish In color, an,
when it brightens it blazes with bril-
liant spectroscopic lines.
1t is probably sun at least as grea
as our sun, and 1t has recently beel
found that its spectrum resembles Il
some striking peculiarities the spectr
| Of sun spots.
Did 1t ever have any worlds to ligh
and nourish? If so think of the condi
| ton of those worlds now.
A sun is like a living organism
| wears out. AS it ages 1t becomes NOR
and more variable. 1t maintains itsel
and it's planets while its radiant powe
| lasts, but 1t cannot do so forever.
contracts, fiickers, struggles, fades an
| goes out Its lifetime Is millions O
years, but it has an end.
| LET US account as a mere nothing,
| cried Bossuet, everything that end:
for, though we should multiply year
beyond the reach Of numbers, yet a
would be nothing when the fatal teri
is reached Garrett z. Serviss in Ne1
York American.