OUR FRECKLED SUN

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 310, 24 September 1921, Page 3

OUR FRECKLED SUN

Ever since the first telescope was directed towards tho sun, we have known that it suffered periodically from dark spots, like freckles on its otherwise brilliant countenance. And ever since then these freckles have been studied and watched, but we still know very little about them, says “Everyday Science.’’ It is fairly certain that they are holes in thf- surface or places from which tho bright clouds of incandescent gases have teen driven away, and above them masses of hydrogen and calcium vapours are whirled in cyclones, but whether vapours are being shot out from the holes or sucked down into them we don’t know. It is believed, however, that their comparative darkness is due to the vapours being cooler than the surrounding {incandescent vapours, cool enough to allow the formation of. chemical compounds like calcium hydride and titanium oxide; which cannot form in the ordinary solar temperature. Eyidenly they are storms, ■ affecting the whole sun, inside as well ?.s out; of what causes them we haven’t an idea. They are like skin eruptions that defy diagnosis. And they are anything from a few million miles to hundreds of millions of miles in diameter. However, we have found out that it is a recurrent complaint, nt its worst every eleven years. The freckles break out and disappear and break out again, gradually working down towards the sun’s equator. Concurrently, but not invariably so, the earth is troubled. As .the sun spots near the equator, w« "usually have "magnetic storms," displays of the and sometimes interruptions to the telegraphs. It cannot be said that these are caused by the spots, but they are certainly connected and are probably both manifestations of the same internal trouble in the sun. One theory is that known as the “hose-pipe theory. This postulates the ejection 'from tho spots of streams of electric corpuscles with ft speed comparable with that of light; when the spot or spots are sufficiently close to the sun's equator the stream strikes the earth end ionises that outer laver of the earths ntmosphoro—that is. converts, it into a rc-s--®oub conductor of electricity. Last May Gie sun lad a large group of freckles. They covered an area of about two thousand million square miles. When the group was nearest to the equator the earth suffered the Lixgeet awaetki storm known for y»»r»,