The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-05
SUN GROWING OLD; PARALYSIS
CREEPING over GOD OF DAY
This Fact May Account for Cold Weather of May and June
Orb is Diminishing.

The curious conduct of the weather
recently serves to call attention TO the
very important researches which the
Smithsonian Institute has been con-
Quoting for some years concerning the
variability of the sun, writes Garrett
p. Serviss in the Washington Post
Whether the recent sudden drop OF
temperture which carrie the Their
rnometer in New York on June low
err than it has ever been known to Iatl
at this time of the year since the
weather bureau was established was
: due to a failure of radiation from the
sun cannot be definitely stated, out
there is no longer doubt that the sun
is a variable star, and that its varla-
tons are often sufficient to produce
general fall. or rise, Of temperature
amounting. in brief periods OF time, TO
several degrees
The cause of these variations is not
fully understood. but it evidently re-
sides in the sun itself. In effect II IS
somewhat like the fluctuations of hre
alternately dying down and then
blazing more f1ercely- But the sun is
not a fire. although 1t is hotter than
any fire we can produce. 1t is globe or
intensely heated gases, in which SUD
stances like iron. which are solid upon
the earth, exist in the state of glowing
vapors-
1t remains in a constantly heated
condition because of its immense mass
(more than 300 900 times that of the
earth) The mutual attraction Of its
gaseous particles draws them together,
producing an immense compression IN
the interior and this compression
serves to increase the heat As the heat
radiates away from the suns surface
the supply within is kept up by the
closer contraction of the whole mass
The sun becomes gradually smaller
through this process. diminishes in
diameter. according to Helmholtz,
about $50 feet per year
But the diameter of the sun is about
S66. 600 miles, so that its diminution in
a thousand years would not be more
than about so miles, or less than one
Observation-Disclosures part of the
whole. an amount that would not be
perceptible from the earth. Yet Helm
holtz shows by the mechanical laws
of heat, that this relatively slight con-
traction of the sun is sufficient to ac-
count for all the heat that it contin-
sualIy gives out.
Suns Heat VIII Some Day Cease.
Now physics teaches US that this
process cannot continue forever. The
time will come (and we cannot tell
just when) when the sun will cease
TO contract and will begin to solidify.
In the meantime the partially con-
densed vapors forming its atmosphere
will become thicker until they absorb (
so much of the radiation from within |
that the amount of heat that is sent
to the earth and other planets will de- /
crease enormously and at length be cut
off entirely.
Millions of years will elapse before ,
that state Of affairs is reached. but 4
meanwhile many temporary variations
are to be expected, and the observa- /
tons that we have referred to indicate /
that such variations have already be- /
gun to manifest themselves.
Here is where the studies of astron- (
'omers concerning other variable stars
of then) become of interest for every /
stage of partial extinction. Some vary
so little that very careful observations
are required to show any change at all 4
but many others loom and sink like a /
dying con1agration. and seem to be /
quite near their end.
For millions of years, PERHAPS the
worlds that circle around such perish
ing suns have been experiencing con-
ditions that one cannot present TO the
imagination without a shudder Grad
ually the heat and light of their sun
have been withdrawn; their inhabi-
tants have seen the orb on whose
radiation they depended become fainter
and fainter, with many sudden but
only temporary recoveries, until at last
TT faded from sight, and with its dis
appearance the frightful cold of inter
stellar space extinguished the last
spark of life !
To think that our sun is exempt
from such an end would be as foolish
as for a man in heyday of youth and