Evening star., 1936-10-03
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Venus. Earth and errasic little Mercury
are engaged in a game of celestial foot
ball-kicking whirlwinds back and forth
around the disk Of the sun.
Such Is the hypothesis presented
through the Smithsonian Institution by
Dr. Fernando Sanford of Palo Alto.
Calf, in a study of the wide variations
in the number of visible sunspots with
different conf1gurations Of the three
inner planets of the solar system.
astronomer, Mrs. A. 8. D. Maunder
called attention to the curious fact that
the invisible side of the Sun turned away
more favorable for sunspot activity than
formed and fewer disappeared on the
invisible side.
For some unknown reason the Earth
seemed to inhibit the formation Of sun
spots on its own side-or to aid their
formation on the opposite side. If this
were true Of the Earth. DR.. Sanford
reasoned, it should be still more true of
the planet Venus, which Is almost as
massive a body and more than twenty
million miles closer to the Sun. so that
its influence should be more potent. He
has checked this hypothesis with sun
spot records for is years.
Earth and Venus move in different
orbits. Sometimes they are on the same
side of the Sun. sometimes on opposite
sides. and sometimes halfway between.
DR.. Sanford checked the sunspot phe-
nomena on the visible side of the disk
for all these planetary positions.
He found that the sun-spottedness on
the terrestrial side was approximately
80 per cent greater when Venus was on
the opposite side Of the Sun than when
she was on the same side as the Earth.
When the two planets were at 90-degree
angles from each other, q condition
which obtained 20 times during the IS
years, the -spottedness was about
halfway between the two extremes.
'It would appear from these results, i"
concludes DR.. Sanford, that the inf1u-
ence of Venus on visible -spottedness
is much greater when the planet is on
the opposite side Of the Sun from the
Earth than when it is on the same side.
That is, the apparent effect Of Venus
on sunspots Is to repel them to the
farthest side of the Sun. The phenome-
non observed by Mrs. Maunder indicates
that the Earth also repels sunspots to
the farther side OF the Sum-"
The orbit of Mercury. tiniest of She
planets, Is so eccentric that 1t was DIM
cult to determine the precise effect, but
DIR. Sanford's analysis indicates that
there Is approximately q Is per cent
increase in -spottedness on the ter
restrial side when Mercury is on the
opposite side. He also found q distinct
relationship when Venus and Mercury
were both on the side Of the Sun op-
posite the Earth.
Now, DR.. Sanford points out, there can
be little doubt that sunspots are highly
electrified. They are great masses OF
rotating gases, each thousands OF miles
in radius, in the atmosphere OF the solar
disk. Now II these inner planets are
similarly electrified 1t would explain the
repulsion, since such bodies always repel
each other.
DR.. Sanford previously, on the basis
Of a considerable body Of other evidence.
showed that the Sun, Earth and Moon all
are negatively electrified. 1t would be fair
to assume, he holds, that the other
planets similarly are negatively charged.
Hence the proximity Of such q negatively
charged body would tend to kick" the
negatively charged rotating mass OF gas
to the opposite side of the Sun, the
strength Of the kick depending on the
size and nearness of the planet. On this
basis Venus would be expected to have