SUN STORMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 130, 2 June 1881, Page 4

SUN STORMS.

Ifc is, cays Providence Journal** pitiful to witness . the conditipiiHo£ T the. sun. ! The great iflre^hapitf _i_4ntfe__s^ commotion.. Hia-: ftuiff&ftei is Beamed

and scarred in every direction with black spots that indicate the disturbing elements at work in his chaotic mass. Occasionally, for a day or two, the blemishes disappear, and the glorious king of day shows a face like a shield of glowing gold. But the aspect quickly changes ; spots come rushing. in all directions and assuming all forms. Thoy appear singly and in pairs, and again in groups and tows. Immense groups break up into small ones, and small ones unite to form ■great chasms, ihto which half a : dozen worlds might be dropped arid there would still be room for more. Sometimes the spots are visible to the nakdd eye, and at that time a good opera glass or a. spy -glass will make them easily perceptible. Huudreds of observers all over the world watch the sun's face every clear day, and keep -a record of the number of spots, their size, and the direction in which they move, for as the sun turns on his axis they turn with him, some of them remaining for months without much change, some taking on new forms and some disappearing entirely. Very little is known at present of this mysterious sun or the spots that are visible more than ninety millions of. miles away. Once in about eleven years the sun takes on his present sunspot phasej and we ane approaching the maximum disturbance. No one knows the cause. Some believe that it is planetary attraction, some that it is the fall of great masses of meteoric . matter, and some that it is the result of internal commotion and the rttßli upwards of gaseous explosions in comjparison with whicli our fiercest volcanic eruptions are but the flicker of a flame, Besides the sun-spot agitation, the gaseous outburstsare marked and vivid. The tongues of flames of rosy protuberances are darting forth in all directions, and bearing their testimony to the solar commotion. Mr Trouvelot, of Cambridge, who makes daily observations of the'sun's chromosphere, gives a graphic description of a remarkable; solar protuberance that he witnessed oni November ' I(s th. When first" seen iti was: large. and complicated,- • extending! upwards from 1 the* si.n ; about a hundred! -thousand smites. Th.co <5r foiii^ hours j after ifr-ihad s developed into larger : pro-j portions;;;extending far. out ihto space,! and vanishing gradually to regions! where it could not be perceived. Asj nearly: ias^ it could be : measured,; it j . reachecJL ay tieighfr of. over a quarter ofj Jthe suns-- diameter, br about two hund-l red and thir.y-five;fhousand ini.es. Such r a protuberance hurled upwards from the earth would- almost; reach/the moon! Two hours after, the whole structure i had collapsed, and was only about j eighteen thousand miles high. Obser- 1 vations' like, this give an idea of theij mighty forces at work in the solar orb, ; and make observers -long for a time! when a satisfactory solution may be : found for this mysterious -periodical I solar disturbance, so intimately con- \ nected with the meteorological condition of the earth.