Astronomy of To-day Part 9

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VI. PHOTOGRAPH OF A SUNSPOT

This fine picture was taken by the late M. Janssen. The granular structure of the Sun's surface is here well represented. (From _Knowledge_.)

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The first attempt to bring some regularity into the question of sunspots was the discovery by Schwabe, in 1852, that they were subject to a regular variation. As a matter of fact they wax and wane in their number, and the total area which they cover, in the course of a period, or cycle, of on an average about 11-1/4 years; being at one part of this period large and abundant, and at another few and small. This period of 11-1/4 years is known as the sun spot cycle. No explanation has yet been given of the curious round of change, but the period in question seems to govern most of the phenomena connected with the sun.

II. REVERSING LAYER.

This is a layer of relatively cool gases lying immediately upon the photosphere. We never see it directly; and the only proof we have of its presence is that remarkable reversal of the spectrum already described, when during an instant or two in a total eclipse, the advancing edge of the moon, having just hidden the brilliant photosphere, is moving across the fine strip which the layer then presents edgewise towards us. The fleeting moments during which this reversed spectrum lasts, informs us that the layer is comparatively shallow; little more indeed than about 500 miles in depth.

The spectrum of the reversing layer, or "flash spectrum," as it is sometimes called on account of the instantaneous character with which the change takes place, was, as we have seen, first noticed by Young in 1870; and has been successfully photographed since then during several eclipses. The layer itself appears to be in a fairly quiescent state; a marked contrast to the seething photosphere beneath, and the agitated chromosphere above.

III. THE CHROMOSPHERE.

The Chromosphere--so called from the Greek [chroma] (_chroma_), which signifies _colour_--is a layer of gases lying immediately upon the preceding one. Its thickness is, however, plainly much the greater of the two; for whereas the reversing layer is only revealed to us _indirectly_ by the spectroscope, a portion of the chromosphere may clearly be _seen_ in a total eclipse in the form of a strip of scarlet light. The time which the moon's edge takes to traverse it tells us that it must be about ten times as deep as the reversing layer, namely, from 5000 to 10,000 miles in depth. Its spectrum shows that it is composed chiefly of hydrogen, calcium and helium, in the state of vapour. Its red colour is mainly due to glowing hydrogen. The element helium, which it also contains, has received its appellation from [helios] (_helios_), the Greek name for the sun; because, at the time when it first attracted attention, there appeared to be no element corresponding to it upon our earth, and it was consequently imagined to be confined to the sun alone.

Sir William Ramsay, however, discovered it to be also a terrestrial element in 1895, and since then it has come into much prominence as one of the products given off by radium.

Taking into consideration the excessive force of gravity on the sun, one would expect to find the chromosphere and reversing layer growing gradually thicker in the direction of the photosphere. This, however, is not the case. Both these layers are strangely enough of the same densities all through; which makes it suspected that, in these regions, the force of gravity may be counteracted by some other force or forces, exerting a powerful pressure outwards from the sun.

IV. THE PROMINENCES.

We have already seen, in dealing with total eclipses, that the exterior surface of the chromosphere is agitated like a stormy sea, and from it billows of flame are tossed up to gigantic heights. These flaming jets are known under the name of prominences, because they were first noticed in the form of brilliant points projecting from behind the rim of the moon when the sun was totally eclipsed. Prominences are of two kinds, _eruptive_ and _quiescent_. The eruptive prominences spurt up directly from the chromosphere with immense speeds, and change their shape with great rapidity. Quiescent prominences, on the other hand, have a form somewhat like trees, and alter their shape but slowly. In the eruptive prominences glowing ma.s.ses of gas are shot up to alt.i.tudes sometimes as high as 300,000 miles,[10] with velocities even so great as from 500 to 600 miles a second. It has been noticed that the eruptive prominences are mostly found in those portions of the sun where spots usually appear, namely, in the regions near the solar equator. The quiescent prominences, on the other hand, are confined, as a rule, to the neighbourhood of the sun's poles.

Prominences were at first never visible except during total eclipses of the sun. But in the year 1868, as we have already seen, a method of employing the spectroscope was devised, by means of which they could be observed and studied at any time, without the necessity of waiting for an eclipse.

A still further development of the spectroscope, the _Spectroheliograph_, an instrument invented almost simultaneously by Professor Hale and the French astronomer, M. Deslandres, permits of photographs being taken of the sun, with the light emanating from _only one_ of its glowing gases at a time. For instance, we can thus obtain a record of what the glowing hydrogen alone is doing on the solar body at any particular moment. With this instrument it is also possible to obtain a series of photographs, showing what is taking place upon the sun at various levels. This is very useful in connection with the study of the spots; for we are, in consequence, enabled to gather more evidence on the subject of their actual form than is given us by their highly foreshortened appearances when observed directly in the telescope.

V. CORONA. (Latin, _a Crown_.)

This marvellous halo of pearly-white light, which displays itself to our view only during the total phase of an eclipse of the sun, is by no means a layer like those other envelopments of the sun of which we have just been treating. It appears, on the other hand, to be composed of filmy matter, radiating outwards in every direction, and fading away gradually into s.p.a.ce. Its structure is noted to bear a strong resemblance to the tails of comets, or the streamers of the aurora borealis.

Our knowledge concerning the corona has, however, advanced very slowly.

We have not, so far, been as fortunate with regard to it as with regard to the prominences; and, for all we can gather concerning it, we are still entirely dependent upon the changes and chances of total solar eclipses. All attempts, in fact, to apply the spectroscopic method, so as to observe the corona at leisure in full sunlight in the way in which the prominences can be observed, have up to the present met with failure.

The general form under which the corona appears to our eyes varies markedly at different eclipses. Sometimes its streamers are many, and radiate all round; at other times they are confined only to the middle portions of the sun, and are very elongated, with short feathery-looking wisps adorning the solar poles. It is noticed that this change of shape varies in close accordance with that 11-1/4 year period during which the sun spots wax and wane; the many-streamered regular type corresponding to the time of great sunspot activity, while the irregular type with the long streamers is present only when the spots are few (see Plate VII., p. 142). Streamers have often been noted to issue from those regions of the sun where active prominences are at the moment in existence; but it cannot be laid down that this is always the case.

No hypothesis has yet been formulated which will account for the structure of the corona, or for its variation in shape. The great difficulty with regard to theorising upon this subject, is the fact that we see so much of the corona under conditions of marked foreshortening. a.s.suming, what indeed seems natural, that the rays of which it is composed issue in every direction from the solar body, in a manner which may be roughly imitated by sticking pins all over a ball; it is plainly impossible to form any definite idea concerning streamers, which actually may owe most of the shape they present to us, to the mixing up of mult.i.tudes of rays at all kinds of angles to the line of sight. In a word, we have to try and form an opinion concerning an arrangement which, broadly speaking, is _spherical_, but which, on account of its distance, must needs appear to us as absolutely _flat_.

The most known about the composition of the corona is that it is made up of particles of matter, mingled with a glowing gas. It is an element in the composition of this gas which, as has been stated, is not found to tally with any known terrestrial element, and has, therefore, received the name of coronium for want of a better designation.

One definite conclusion appears to be reached with regard to the corona, _i.e._ that the matter of which it is composed, must be exceedingly rarefied; as it is not found, for instance, to r.e.t.a.r.d appreciably the speed of comets, on occasions when these bodies pa.s.s very close to the sun. A calculation has indeed been made which would tend to show that the particles composing the coronal matter, are separated from each other by a distance of perhaps between two and three yards! The density of the corona is found not to increase inwards towards the sun. This is what has already been noted with regard to the layers lying beneath it.

Powerful forces, acting in opposition to gravity, must hold sway here also.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (A.) THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN OF DECEMBER 22ND, 1870

Drawn by Mr. W.H. Wesley from a photograph taken at Syracuse by Mr.

Brothers. This is the type of corona seen at the time of _greatest_ sunspot activity. The coronas of 1882 (Plate I., p. 96) and of 1905 (Frontispiece) are of the same type.

(B.) THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN OF MAY 28TH, 1900

Drawn by Mr. W.H. Wesley from photographs taken by Mr. E.W. Maunder.

This is the type of corona seen when the sunspots are _least_ active.

Compare the "Ring with Wings," Fig. 7, p. 87.

PLATE VII. FORMS OF THE SOLAR CORONA AT THE EPOCHS OF SUNSPOT MAXIMUM AND SUNSPOT MINIMUM, RESPECTIVELY

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The 11-1/4 year period, during which the sun spots vary in number and size, appears to govern the activities of the sun much in the same way that our year does the changing seasonal conditions of our earth. Not only, as we have seen, does the corona vary its shape in accordance with the said period, but the activity of the prominences, and of the faculae, follow suit. Further, this constant round of ebb and flow is not confined to the sun itself, but, strangely enough, affects the earth also. The displays of the aurora borealis, which we experience here, coincide closely with it, as does also the varying state of the earth's magnetism. The connection may be still better appreciated when a great spot, or group of spots, has made its appearance upon the sun. It has, for example, often been noted that when the solar rotation carries a spot, or group of spots, across the middle of the visible surface of the sun, our magnetic and electrical arrangements are disturbed for the time being. The magnetic needles in our observatories are, for instance, seen to oscillate violently, telegraphic communication is for a while upset, and magnificent displays of the aurora borealis illumine our night skies. Mr. E.W. Maunder, of Greenwich Observatory, who has made a very careful investigation of this subject, suspects that, when elongated coronal streamers are whirled round in our direction by the solar rotation, powerful magnetic impulses may be projected upon us at the moments when such streamers are pointing towards the earth.

Some interesting investigations with regard to sunspots have recently been published by Mrs. E.W. Maunder. In an able paper, communicated to the Royal Astronomical Society on May 10, 1907, she reviews the Greenwich Observatory statistics dealing with the number and extent of the spots which have appeared during the period from 1889 to 1901--a whole sunspot cycle. From a detailed study of the dates in question, she finds that the number of those spots which are formed on the side of the sun turned away from us, and die out upon the side turned towards us, is much greater than the number of those which are formed on the side turned towards us and die out upon the side turned away. It used, for instance, to be considered that the influence of a planet might _produce_ sunspots; but these investigations make it look rather as if some influence on the part of the earth tends, on the contrary, to _extinguish_ them. Mrs. Maunder, so far, prefers to call the influence thus traced an _apparent_ influence only, for, as she very fairly points out, it seems difficult to attribute a real influence in this matter to the earth, which is so small a thing in comparison not only with the sun, but even with many individual spots.

The above investigation was to a certain degree antic.i.p.ated by Mr. Henry Corder in 1895; but Mrs. Maunder's researches cover a much longer period, and the conclusions deduced are of a wider and more defined nature.

With regard to its chemical composition, the spectroscope shows us that thirty-nine of the elements which are found upon our earth are also to be found in the sun. Of these the best known are hydrogen, oxygen, helium, carbon, calcium, aluminium, iron, copper, zinc, silver, tin, and lead. Some elements of the metallic order have, however, not been found there, as, for instance, gold and mercury; while a few of the other cla.s.s of element, such as nitrogen, chlorine, and sulphur, are also absent. It must not, indeed, be concluded that the elements apparently missing do not exist at all in the solar body. Gold and mercury have, in consequence of their great atomic weight, perhaps sunk away into the centre. Again, the fact that we cannot find traces of certain other elements, is no real proof of their entire absence. Some of them may, for instance, be resolved into even simpler forms, under the unusual conditions which exist in the sun; and so we are unable to trace them with the spectroscope, the experience of which rests on laboratory experiments conducted, at best, in conditions which obtain upon the earth.

[10] On November 15, 1907, Dr. A. Rambaut, Radcliffe Observer at Oxford University, noted a prominence which rose to a height of 324,600 miles.

CHAPTER XIV

THE INFERIOR PLANETS

Starting from the centre of the solar system, the first body we meet with is the planet Mercury. It circulates at an average distance from the sun of about thirty-six millions of miles. The next body to it is the planet Venus, at about sixty-seven millions of miles, namely, about double the distance of Mercury from the sun. Since our earth comes next again, astronomers call those planets which circulate within its...o...b..t, _i.e._ Mercury and Venus, the Inferior Planets, while those which circulate outside it they call the Superior Planets.[11]

In studying the inferior planets, the circ.u.mstances in which we make our observations are so very similar with regard to each, that it is best to take them together. Let us begin by considering the various positions of an inferior planet, as seen from the earth, during the course of its journeys round the sun. When furthest from us it is at the other side of the sun, and cannot then be seen owing to the blaze of light. As it continues its journey it pa.s.ses to the left of the sun, and is then sufficiently away from the glare to be plainly seen. It next draws in again towards the sun, and is once more lost to view in the blaze at the time of its pa.s.sing nearest to us. Then it gradually comes out to view on the right hand, separates from the sun up to a certain distance as before, and again recedes beyond the sun, and is for the time being once more lost to view.

To these various positions technical names are given. When the inferior planet is on the far side of the sun from us, it is said to be in _Superior Conjunction_. When it has drawn as far as it can to the left hand, and is then as east as possible of the sun, it is said to be at its _Greatest Eastern Elongation_. Again, when it is pa.s.sing nearest to us, it is said to be in _Inferior Conjunction_; and, finally, when it has drawn as far as it can to the right hand, it is spoken of as being at its _Greatest Western Elongation_ (see Fig. 11, p. 148).

The continual variation in the distance of an interior planet from us, during its revolution around the sun, will of course be productive of great alterations in its apparent size. At superior conjunction it ought, being then farthest away, to show the smallest disc; while at inferior conjunction, being the nearest, it should look much larger.

When at greatest elongation, whether eastern or western, it should naturally present an appearance midway in size between the two.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Various positions, and illumination by the Sun, of an Inferior Planet in the course of its...o...b..t.

Corresponding views of the same situations of an Inferior Planet as seen from the Earth, showing consequent phases and alterations in apparent size.

FIG. 11.--Orbit and Phases of an Inferior Planet.]

From the above considerations one would be inclined to a.s.sume that the best time for studying the surface of an interior planet with the telescope is when it is at inferior conjunction, or, nearest to us. But that this is not the case will at once appear if we consider that the sunlight is then falling upon the side away from us, leaving the side which is towards us unillumined. In superior conjunction, on the other hand, the light falls full upon the side of the planet facing us; but the disc is then so small-looking, and our view besides is so dazzled by the proximity of the sun, that observations are of little avail. In the elongations, however, the sunlight comes from the side, and so we see one half of the planet lit up; the right half at eastern elongation, and the left half at western elongation. Piecing together the results given us at these more favourable views, we are enabled, bit by bit, to gather some small knowledge concerning the surface of an inferior planet.