Evening star., 1951-03-14
Evidence Found Thot Sun
Is d Powerful Muqnet
Naval Research Unit Tells
Of Investigation Results
By Thomos R. Henry
dence is accommodating that the sun,

Evidence is accumulating that the sun,
like the earth, is powerful magnet.
Preliminary results of Investigations
carried out as an Office of Naval Re-
search project have been reported by
Drs. Gerard P. Kuiper and K. o. Kiepen-
heuer of the Yerkes and Mcdonald OBJ
servatories of the University Of Chicago.
That the earth is magnet is apparent
from the behavior of the magnetic needle
and its rather large variations through
the centuries. Until quite recently it was
believed that this was because the center
of the planet was an enormous ball Of
iron. This was supposed to constitute
the innermost half of the planet and
to be responsible for the greater part of
it's mass. 1t now is obvious, Dr. Kuiper
reports to the Navy sponsors, that this
cannot be true. The enormous pressures
would raise the temperature far beyond
the point where iron loses its magnetic
attraction.
Like Gigantic Dynamo.
The hypothesis now favored is that
the core of the earth is liquid, under
very great pressure. Within this liquid
float electrified particles. They are kept
whirling around by the rotation of the
earth itself The effect is somewhat like
that of gigantic dynamo.
Now, DR.. Kuiper points out, the same
should be true for any Whirling body Of
planetary size or greater. The sun rotates
on its axis in 26 days. Some stars revolve
much faster and have calendar periods
of less than day. Some are whirling so
fast that they are throwing off streams
of gas from their equatorial regions, like
a fast spinning wet wheel throwing off
streams of water.
From this it can be deduced that the
sun is a magnet with field extending
far into surrounding space. 1t long has
been known that the sun spots, essen
TALLY whirlwinds in the hot surface of
the sun, are themselves smaller mag
nets. If the main thesis were true, it
would have far-reaching effects on cur
rent theories of solar behavior.
Unfortunately, DR.. Kuiper points out,
the idea that the sun is a gigantic mag
net up to now have. been an improved
deduction. Nobody can get near enough
to the suns surface with a magnetic
needle to test the thesis.
Some years ago, however, it was found
that certain light wave length lines in
various atomic spectra became double
vi Il1p4G WIlGIl GIl6 source 1rOIQ WHICH
they were emitted was in a strong mag
netic field This was known as the
Zeeman effect. Splitting was found to
be proportional to the strength of the
field.
New Instrument Built.
Theoretically, this could be detected
with an instrument known as the spec
trograph. 1t should make no difference
whether the source emitting the light
was in laboratory or more than 100,-
100000 miles away. Practically, how
ever, the effect is difficult to detect
without an instrument of extreme pre-
cision.
Results with the sun reported by
various astronomers in the past have
been quite contradictory. 1t may be
that the solar magnetic field in any
particular place is too small to produce
true Zeeman effect. 1t, however,
should be detachable by certain refine
n1entS.
These have been incorporated in an
instrument which the University of Chi
cago astronomers have constructed
under the Navy contract 1t has an
accuracy, DR.. Kuiper says, very close
to the theoretical limit
>, Preliminary observations tend to
confirm the thesis that the sun actually
is a magnet. 1t will be necessary, how
ever, to carry on these observations for
several years and to correlate them
with those of other observatories be-
fore final conclusions can be reported.