South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-06-11
What Spots on the Sun Mean

having inky black centers. surrounded
' In penumbral shadows while In
some places around the spots the sur
face Of the sun is spatteTed with bril-
liant white splashes. These which
are seldom seen unless the spots hap
pen TO be not very far from the suns
edge, are the faculae ("little tOrches")
OF the astronomers. Faculae are
brighter and more numerous near sun
spots but they also exist independent
~ IN places where there are no dark
spots TO be seen.
The return OF sun spots is a phe-
nomenon that astronomers regard
with great concern. They come flock
ing back once in about every II wears.
II takes, on the average, four and a
half years for them TO reach a maxi |
Gum OF numbers. when the sun is
seen 10 be more or less speckled every
day, and six and half years to de-
cline again 10 a minimum, when for
months in succession the suns face is
as clean as a polished mirror. Upon
the whole, the heat on the earth. ia
king its entire surface into account |
and baSing the observation on the
temperature Of the atmosphere, is /
about one degree and a quarter of |
the Fahrenheit scale lower at sunspot !
maximum than at sunspot minimum
Tbs cannot be wholly due 10 the
darkenlng of the sun caused by the |
presence or the spots, since. as Mr. /
{. q. Abbott Of the Smithsonian in |
stitutiOn. has shown the amount by
which the temperature is lowered IS /
five times too great to be accounted |
for in that way.
But there are other ways in which |
an invasion of a horde of spots on |
the sun makes its effects felt upon |
our globe. The most conspicuous of /
these is in connection with the earth's !
magnetism.
The earth is a great magnet and |
the sun appears to exercise a direct |
influence upon its magnetic state, |
that influence varying with the con-
dition OF the sun as to SpOttedness. |
When sunspOtS are at a maximum. |
magnetic storms of great violence oc- |
cur. during which the electro magnetic |
excitement of the earth Is vividly |
manifested-in the atmosphere by |
bOrealis, and in the earth itself by
vagabond currents which interrupt /
telegraph and cable communication.
and sometimes leap into visibility and |
audibility in the form of cracking |
sparks and electric flames playing |
about the instruments.
Occasionally it has been possible to
influence of individual sunspots Of I'M
usual magnitude and activity. 1t is
like the transmission of a shock from
the sun to the earth. across a gap of
5000, 600 miles supposed to be filled |
with nothing but the invisible and in
tangible ether.
Exactly how the forces that pro-
duce spots upon the sun affect the
earth's weather is an unsettled ques-
ton. There is a considerable amount
of evidence for saying that such
storms as our western tOrnadoes the |
hurricanes of the West Indies and
the typhoons of the China seas, are
far more numerous during sunspot |
maXima, and especially during the
time that the spots are increasing in
numbers. 1t has also been thought |
that wet and dry seasons are con-
nected in some way with the sunspot
cycle, but on this subject the evil
dence is contradictory. Some stats
tics show that dry seasons accompany
sunspOts, and other that wet seasons
accompany them.
But all of these things are really
of little account in comparison with |
the great question CT the effects
produced upon the sun itself. The
earth is a speck in the infinite vault
of space. we are animated atoms liv-
ing for the fraction of moment upon |
that insignificant speck, OF how great |
consequence in the vast scheme Of |
the creation can the little questions |
that relate to our ephermeral COM
forts be? If a sunfiame should lick |
us up our disappearance from the |
physically considered, would |
be of less Importance than that of the |
minutest drop Of water from the |
ocean. But if the sun should disap- |
pear there would be a star gone from |
heaven. A part of the universe. at |
least, would notice its absence. What |
ever threatens the existence of the |
sun. then, has an appreciable import |
ance. The astronomer finds that the I
sunspOts are symptomatic of pro- |
gressive changes which will eventually /
brings the suns career to an end, and |
so he studies them not for the sake |
of finding out merely how they may |
affect our petty affairs. but in order !
to trace, for his intellectual satisfac- |
ton, the grand phenomena Of the life |
and death of a star. And in doing |
that he is pursuing the only course |
which can rescue man from oblivion, |
offsetting his material insignihcance |
and nothingness with the relative |
greatness of his mind.