Year: 1877

THE DANGER SIGNAL.


Trouble Among the Stars---Whnt May Hap.


pen to ns Through Trouble with our OWL


Iliuminntor.


Mr.. Richard A. Proctor writes to the
London Echo as follows: We have
within short time had new evidence in
the star depths of danger to which our
(. own sun, and we along with it, would
seem to be exposed. The news from the
star depths concern us more nearly. 1t
tells us of Il sun, doubtless in general re-
spects like our own, which has met with
ssme great catastrophe, whose cause we
cannot at present determine, but whose
real nature is unmistakable. Our sun is
one among hundreds of millions, each OF
which is probably, like it, the center Of
scheme of circling worlds. Each sim
is rushing along through space, with its
train of worlds, each bearing, perhaps,
like our earth, its living freight, or, more
probably, each, at some time or other OF
its existence, becoming habitable for a
longer or shorter period. Thus the sun
may be compared to engines, each draw
ing along it's well freighted train. Acct
dents among these celestial engines seem
fortunately to be rare. A few among the
suns appear suddenly (that is in the
course of few hundred years, which in
celestial cbrOnometry amounts to a mere
instantly to have lost large part of their
energy, as though the supply of fuel h had (!
somehow run short. Mishaps of this
kind have not attracted much attention,
though manifestly it would be a serious
matter if our own SIN were suddenly to
lose three-fourths of his heat. as has
happened with the middle star of the
Plow, or nincty-nine hundredths, rs has
happened with the once blazing, but now
scarcely visible, orb called Eta, in the
keel of the star ship Argo. But when
we hear of an accident of the contrary
kinda sun suddenly blazing out with
more than hundred times its usual
splendor; celestial engine whose ener-
gies have been overwrought, so that a
sudden explosion has taken place, and
the fires meant to work steadily for the
train, have blazeu forth to its destruction
we are impressed with the thought that
this may possibly one day happen with
our own sun. The circumstances are
very curious, and though they do not
show clearly whether we are or are not
exposed to the same kind of danger
which had overtaken the worlds circling
around those remote Suns, they are sllffi-
ciently suggestive.


Now, a point to which would call es-
pecial attention is, that all the elements
of the catastrophe, if one may so speak,
which has befallen the remote sun in the
Swan exist in our own sun. At times of
marked disturbance parts of our suns
surface show the lines of hydrogen
bright instead of dark, which means that
the flames of hydrogen over those parts
of the sun are hotter than the glowing
surface of the sun there. We have all
heard, again, how Tachini and Secchi, in
Italy, attributed some exceptionally hot
weather we had few years ago to out
bursts of glowing magnesium. And,
lastly, our sun is certainly well supplied
with that element, whatever it is, which
gives the bright line of his corona dur
ing eclipses; for we how know that the
whole of the streaked and radiated coro-
IA occupying region twenty times
greater than the globe of the sun (Which
itself exceeds our earth 1850 600 times
in volume) belongs to the sun. Again,
though the sun has shone steadily for
thousands of years, vet, so far rs can be
Judged, the stars which, like this one in
the Swan, have burst out suddenly,
blossoming into flames of hydrogen,
within which the stars heart core glows
with many hundred times its former heat,
have also been for ages shining steadily
amid the star depths. We know that
the one which blazed out ten years ago
in the Northern Crown was one of Ar
gelander's list, a star of the tenth magni-
tude. and that, after glowing with eight
hundred times its former brightness for
few days, it has resumed its fceblcr
lustcr. We have every reason which
analogy can furnish for believing that the
new star, which was not in Argelander' s
list, simply escaped record by him Oh ac-
count of it's faintness. 1t is now fast
losing its suddenly acquired luster, and
is already invisible to the naked eye. 1t
appears, therefore, that there is nothing
in the long continued steadfastness of our
sun as a source of light to assure lis
that he, too, may not suddenly blaze
forth with many hundred times his usual
lustre (the confagration being originated,
perchanca, by some comet unfortunately
travelling too directly toward him).
Though he would probably cool down to
his present condition again in the course
of few weeks, no terrestrial observers
would be alive, at any rate, to note the
fact, though the whole series Of events
might afford subject of interesting spec
ulation to the inhabitants of worlds Cir
cling round Sirius or Arcturus. For
tuuately, we may legitimately reason
that the risk is small, seeing that among
the millions of suns which surround ours,
within easy telescope distance, such
catastrophes occur only ten or twelve
times per century.