The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1912-04-12
SPOTS 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" Is
Fighting For Existence, Has Abso-
lutely No Chance to Win and Whose
Death Means the End Of the World.

Death Means the End Of the World.
Life is 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 ultl-
mate fate is bound up with the denOue
ment Of the play.
IT IS the life drama Of the solar sys-
tenn Its chief actor is the sun, and
men are beginning 10 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 q
part, but fighting for life lie cuunol
win; he can only prolong the struggle.
and when he falls exhausted the stage.
the theater, actors. spectators, pin and
galleries will go with him in one uni.
versal ruin.
Until recently we were only troubled
a little I'm mind by the sun spots. 1t
was evident that they must cut of
some radiation, but the amount ap-
peared to be trihing. and their maXima
% fnY ,..n
now we are confronted by n much
more disquieting phenomenon. The sun
appears to "huctuate at Irregular inter
vals 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 verltable star
mean? What may it mean TO the earth
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 famous variable star known
as Mira the Wonderful In n period
of about ten months on the average II
changes from the third-sometimes the
second-magnltude to about the ninth
and then back again.
That means, I'm the extreme, a prob
able difference of between two and
three hundred times in the amount of
light and heat which it radiates around
It at maximum and at minimum.
When it is faintest it cannot be seen
with the naked eye; when ii is bright
est It Is a conspicuous object. As 1t
fades 1t turns reddish i'm color, and
when It brightens it hla2es with bril-.
liant spectroSCopic lines.
1t is probably a sun at least as great
as our sun, and it has recently been
found that its spectrum resembles IN
some striking pyculiarit,es the Speptra
Of sun spots
Did 1t ever have any worlds to light
and nourish? II 50 think of Che coudi
tion OF those worlds now.
A sun is Ike living organism II
wears out. As ii ages ii becomes more
and more variable. 1t maintains itself
and its planets while its radiant power
lasts, but 1t cannot do SO forever. 1t
contracts hickers, struggles, fades and
goes out. Its lifetime is millions Of
years, but it has an end.
Let us account as a mere nothing,
cried Bossuet. "cverything that ends,
for, though we should multiply years
beyond the reach OF numbers, yet all
would be nothing when the fatal term
IS reached "-Garrett L. Serviss in New
York American.