Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1890 — The Sun's Enormous Heat. [ARTICLE]

The S un's Enormous Heat.

A writer tells us that the heat of the sun has been estimated to .be.TB,OOO degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of molten metal in the Bessemer converter is, 3,Q00 degrees Fahrenheit, so that some idea oi the intense heat of the solar orb may be imagined. >’ At that extraordinarily high temperature not only iron but every other metal known to mankind can exiptjbnly' in the vaporous condition. Although it is an* impossibility for us to get near the sun, yet we can, by means of a powerful lens, practically $ transport any object so that it will receive the Bame heat from the sun as if it were as near to us as we are to' the moon, or within 240,000. miles-from the sun. In the focus of such a lens fire-clay, the diamond and the most refractory substances known to us are either instantly melted or converted into vapor. The earth a#the distance qf only 240,0(T0 miles from the sun would melt like wax, and no body can come anywhere near the sun without getting melted and converted into the vapordus condition, even before chming into contact with it;