Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1878 — First Impressions of the Eclipse Observations. [ARTICLE]

First Impressions of the Eclipse Observations.

It is of course too early to expect any strictly scientific or conclusive estimate of the bearing of the eclipse observations on current solar theories, there having been no opportunity for a critical study and comparison of the photographs and other records obtained. Yet the im pressions made upon the observing astronomers by the more striking phenomena are not without interest. Toucliing the effect of the varying constitution of the corona, Dr. Draper said to the Herald correspondent; “It is rather singular while the sun has been in such a quiescent condition for more than two years that we have not seen more changes in the climate of the earth. This would seem to show that the abnormal condition of the sun at the maximum period of sun spots, which occurs every eleven years, counts for but little against the total amount of heat that is sent out from the sun at all times. The present observations go to show that the activity or quiescence of the sun makes no perceptible difference in the earth’s condition. I do not regard this most marked change in the corona as portending any change in the condition of either climate or crops.” Mr. Norman Lockyer interprets the evidence very differently. He says; “ The present eclipse has accomplished, if nothing else, the excellent result of intensifying our knowledge concerning the running down of the solar energy. With the reduction of the number of spots or prominences for the last four years, the terrestrial magnetism has been less energetic than it has been for the preceding forty years. This would evidently account for it, as well as for the great famines in India and China which took place forty-four years ago. The sun is the great prime mover of earth. Every cloud, every tide, every air current depends upon it. When in a state of activity the sun throws out an atmosphere which serves as a shield to the earth, protecting it from abnormal influences of the sun. The absence of the green lines shows a great reduction in the temperature of the sun, and such a marked change in the sun should produce a corresponding change on the eaith. A continuation of this changing of the sun’s condition must inevitably be followed by serious results aud radical climatic variations.” President Morton says that rhe marked changes in the sun’s condition would seem to call for corresponding marked changes in the condition of the earth, and it is a surprise that no such changes have occurred. He is of opinion, however, that the evidence ■ tends to sustain the theory that the sun’s heat has been maintained by the impact of meteoric matter, which is known to vary very largely in constitution, and it is possible that the sun’s fires may be fed at times with purely mineral matter, and again for considerable periods with meteorites highly charged with hydrogen, giving the sun a far-reaching atmosphere of ignited gas. “If such changes go on indefinitely it may not be irrational to inquire whethor they may not in future produce such extraordinary climatic conditions in the earth as geology teaches ns have existed in the ages of the past, or, in other words, the polar regions become tropical, as the fossil remains of animals and plants found! there indicate they have been. —Scientific American.