Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1881 — STORMS ON THE SUN. [ARTICLE]

STORMS ON THE SUN.

The Series of Violent Disturbances noted by Astronomers During July. June closed with peaceful skies after the tomsdnas and .-thunder-storms of the middte of of the month, and Julv opened with Summer quietude prevailing all round the globe. The elements were at peace upon the earth. But on the sun there was ? far different scene. Through the still air on the afternoon of JulyJ tfie astronomer pointed his telescope at the great flreglobe that gives Xae earth light and life, and its rays fell upon the lenses with perfect steadtaeM, and, bending obediently to the focus of the instrumant, made an image of the sun that,when magnified, was as exquisitely sharp and clear as though carved in gold by a master jeweler. It required but a glance to show that the surface of this splendid ball, which the astronomer knew was 860,000 miles in diameter, though it hung, with room to spare, in the circular field of the eye-piece, was wrinkled and pitted, torn, tossed, and heaving under the strain of tempest forces. There wqre vast groups of spots, individual members of which covered more sxuare miles than all the continents of the earth; there were small specks hardly visible when greatly magnified, and around all were the crinkled lines cffacuhsi brighter than the rest of the sujface.and crowded together in places resembling a sea of flames seen from above. >lt required but a short time to show that changes were going on under the eye |of the observer, slight compared with the vast extent of the spots, yet involving motions that have po parallel on the earth. The astronomer had only to apply a spectroscope to sea that all around the sun were enormous, fiery protuberances thrown out like jets from a geyser to a height of thousands and tens of thousands of miles, and settling back in cicuds of glowing vapor. So through the calm of a Bummer afternoon, and at the safe distance of 92,000.000mi1es he could watch the storms oh the sun, trace the course of fiery cyclones blowing a hundred miles a second,and study and micrometrically measure the visible effects of forces that would shatter and vaporize the earth. Yet the enormous distance that separates the earth from the sun is not so safe in all respects as it seems. Sun storms certainly have a powerful effect upon the electrical condition of the earth, and it is suspected that they may affect the earth’s weather.

The eun was storm swept the whole month. The clear air that ringed the earth on the Ist soon after filled with clouds and thunder storms, and was swirled here and there into death-deal-ing tornadoes, so that the astronomer’s telescope became useless. But In all the intervals of fair weather it showed the sun’s face yet spotted and wrinkled and rimmed with eruptions of flaming gas. In the middle of the mon th some of the spots, or holes were of enormous magnitude and of wonderful complexity|iu shape aud detail. Again at the close of the month, huge groups and rows of spots were stretched across the disk, and the view with high magnifiers was startling and exceedingly impressive. The most that astronomers are able to say with confidence about these spots is that they are holes of a size and depth almost beyond belief; that they are produced by disturbances in the glowing matter ot the sun, and that they are governed by some law that causes them to wax and wane in number in a period of about eleven years. There were no spots to* speak of in 1878; they began to appear frequently in 1880; iu 1883 they will be most numerous, and in 1889 the sun will again be free from them.