SUN SPOTS IN 1908.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9339, 7 January 1909, Page 6

SUN SPOTS IN 1908.

. H. Hitohlngs writes as follows from Sydenham Observatory : —Another twelve months-have passed since X wrote last. We have revolved 365 times on oar own axis, and once round the sun, at the rate of 18 miles per second. When we think"of the’rate at which we move, is it to be wondered at that this earth should have some shrinkage of the inside, thereby causing a contraction on the outside, and thereby causing earthquakes in various latitudes and longitudes; for we know that our planet is shrinking daily? The energy of the sun during the past year was much above the same as in 1907. Three were four davs in October in which there were no spots on the sun, but the sun, like our earth, is getting older and smaller, by calculations about 16in. per day, or one mile in every eleven yeara It may serve to impress upon ns the fact of the son’s shrinkage if we remember that on the auspicious day when Queen Victoria came to the throne, the son had a diameter more than five times greater than it had at the time when her long and glorious career ended. But we need not fear for some thousands of years to come.. During the present year we shall be looking foi a strange visitor in 'the shape of Halley’s comet, at the present time bordering the orbit of Jupiter.