STATE OF THE SUN.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 644, 12 April 1870, Page 3

STATE OF THE SUN.

Professor J. D. Steele has sent to a New York journal the following communication for quieting needless fears: —"There appeared some weeks since a paragraph declaring that a column of magnetic light is shooting out from the sun at a prodigious speed—that it already reaches halfway to the earth, and that, in all probability, by another summer we shall have celestial and atmospheric phenomena beside which our rudest winter winds will seem like a' June morning in Paradise'—in fine, that when this big tongue of fire touches the earth it will likely lap up our globe at one mouthful. Very many have made inquiries of me concerning this prodigy, and, with your leave I will try to satisfy their curiosity, and perhaps allay their fears. It has been known for some time that during a total eclipse red flames were seen to play about the edge of the moon. During the eclipses of IS6B and 1869 it was definitely settled that they are entirely disconnected from the moon, and were vast tongues of fire darting out from the sun's disc. By observations with the spectroscope, and also by means of the wonderful photographs of the sun, taken by De la Rue during the eclipse of 1860, it was discovered that these fire mountains consisted mainly of burning hydrogen gas. This was precious information to secure in the midst of the excitement and novelty, and in the brief duration of a total eclipse. It did not, however, satisfy scientific men. For two years Mr Lockyer, aided by a grant from Parliament to construct a superior instrument, had been experimenting and searching in order to detect these flames at other times than at the rare occurrence of a total eclipse. On October 20th, 1868, he obtained a distinct image of one of the prominences, which he afterwards traced entirely round the sun. Astronomers can, therefore, now study these flames at any time. The results of observations now being taken show that storms rage upon the sun with a violence of which we can form no conception. Hurricanes sweep over its surface with terrific violence. Vast cyclones wrap its fires into whirlpools, at the bottom of which our earth could lie like a boulder in a volcano. Huge flames dart out to enormous distances, and fly over the sun with a speed greater than that of the earth itself through space. At one time a cone of fire shot out 80,000 miles, and then died away all in ten minutes' time. Beside such awful convulsions, the mimic display of a terrestrial volcano or earthquake sinks into insignificance. There is nothing in these phenomena to alarm us. They have, in all probability, happened constantly for ages past. That we have now means of investigating their nature and measuring their height and velocity, furnishes bo cause of anxiety. Rumors of these discoveries have crept into the papers, and exaggerated by repeated copying and, sensational additions, have given rise to these mysterious and uncalled for predictions."