Man's Place in the Universe Part 5

Proctor estimated that each square inch of the sun's surface emitted as much light as twenty-five electric arcs; and Professor Langley has shown by experiment that the sun is 5300 times brighter, and eighty-seven times hotter than the white-hot metal in a Bessemer converter. The actual amount of solar heat received by the earth is sufficient, if wholly utilised, to keep a three-horse-power engine continually at work on every square yard of the surface of our globe. The size of the sun is such, that if the earth were at its centre, not only would there be ample s.p.a.ce for the moon's...o...b..t, but sufficient for another satellite 190,000 miles beyond the moon, all revolving inside the sun. The ma.s.s of matter in the sun is 745 times greater than that of all the planets combined; hence the powerful gravitative force by which they are retained in their distant orbits.

What we see as the sun's surface is the photosphere or outer layer of gaseous or partially liquid matter kept at a definite level by the power of gravitation. The photosphere has a granular texture implying some diversity of surface or of luminosity; although the even contour of the sun's margin shows that these irregularities are not on a very large scale. This surface is apparently rent asunder by what are termed sun-spots, which were long supposed to be cavities, showing a dark interior; but are now thought to be due to downpours of cooled materials driven out from the sun, and forming the prominences seen during solar eclipses. They appear to be black, but around their margin is a shaded border or penumbra formed of elongated shining patches crossing and over-lapping, something like heaps of straw.

Sometimes brilliant portions overhang the dark spots, and often completely bridge them over; and similar patches, called faculae, accompany spots, and in some cases almost surround them.

Sun-spots are sometimes numerous on the sun's disc, sometimes very few, and they are of such enormous size that when present they can easily be seen with the naked eye, protected by a piece of smoked gla.s.s; or, better still, with an ordinary opera-gla.s.s similarly protected. They are found to increase in number for several years, and then to decrease; the maxima recurring after an average period of eleven years, but with no exactness, since the interval between two maxima or minima is sometimes only nine and sometimes as much as thirteen years; while the minima do not occur midway between two maxima, but much nearer to the succeeding than to the preceding one. What is more interesting is, that variations in terrestrial magnetism follow them with great accuracy; while violent commotions in the sun, indicated by the sudden appearance of faculae, sun-spots, or prominences on the sun's limb, are always accompanied by magnetic disturbances on the earth.

WHAT SURROUNDS THE SUN

It has been well said that what we commonly term the sun is really the bright spherical nucleus of a nebulous body. This nucleus consists of matter in the gaseous state, but so compressed as to resemble a liquid or even a viscous fluid. About forty of the elements have been detected in the sun by means of the dark lines in its spectrum, but it is almost certain that all the elements, in some form or other, exist there. This semi-liquid glowing surface is termed the photosphere, since from it are given out the light and heat which reach our earth.

Immediately above this luminous surface is what is termed the 'reversing layer' or absorbing layer, consisting of dense metallic vapours only a few hundred miles thick, and, though glowing, somewhat cooler than the surface of the photosphere. Its spectrum, taken, at the moment when the sun is totally darkened, through a slit which is directed tangentially to the sun's limb, shows a ma.s.s of bright lines corresponding in a large degree to the dark lines in the ordinary solar spectrum. It is thus shown to be a vaporous stratum which absorbs the special rays emitted by each element and forming its characteristic coloured lines, changing them into black lines.

But as coloured lines are not found in this layer corresponding to all the black lines in the solar spectrum, it is now held that special absorption must also occur in the chromosphere and perhaps in the corona itself. Sir Norman Lockyer, in his volume on _Inorganic Evolution_, even goes so far as to say, that the true 'reversing layer' of the sun--that which by its absorption produced the dark lines in the solar spectrum--is now shown to be _not_ the chromosphere itself but a layer above it, of lower temperature.

Above the reversing layer comes the chromosphere, a vast ma.s.s of rosy or scarlet emanations surrounding the sun to a depth of about 4000 miles. When seen during eclipses it shows a serrated waving outline, but subject to great changes of form, producing the prominences already mentioned. These are of two kinds: the 'quiescent,' which are something like clouds of enormous extent, and which keep their forms for a considerable time; and the 'eruptive,' which shoot out in towering tree-like flames or geyser-like eruptions, and while doing so have been proved to reach velocities of over 300 miles a second, and subside again with almost equal rapidity. The chromosphere and its quiescent prominences appear to be truly gaseous, consisting of hydrogen, helium, and coronium, while the eruptive prominences always show the presence of metallic vapours, especially of calcium. Prominences increase in size and number in close accordance with the increase of sun-spots. Beyond the red chromosphere and prominences is the marvellous white glory of the corona, which extends to an enormous distance round the sun. Like the prominences of the chromosphere, it is subject to periodical changes in form and size, corresponding to the sun-spot period, but in inverse order, a minimum of sun-spots going with a maximum extension of the corona. At the total eclipse of July 1878, when the sun's surface was almost wholly clear, a pair of enormous equatorial streamers stretched east and west of the sun to a distance of ten millions of miles, and less extensions of the corona occurred at the poles. At the eclipses of 1882 and 1883, on the other hand, when sun-spots were at a maximum, the corona was regularly stellate with no great extensions, but of high brilliancy. This correspondence has been noted at every eclipse, and there is therefore an undoubted connection between the two phenomena.

The light of the corona is believed to be derived from three sources--from incandescent solid or liquid particles thrown out from the sun, from sunlight reflected from these particles, and from gaseous emissions. Its spectrum possesses a green ray, which is peculiar to it, and is supposed to indicate a gas named 'coronium'; in other respects the spectrum is more like that of reflected sunlight. The enormous extensions of the corona into great angular streamers seem to indicate electrical repulsive forces a.n.a.logous to those which produce the tails of comets.

Connected with the sun's corona is that strange phenomenon, the zodiacal light. This is a delicate nebulosity, which is often seen after sunset in spring and before sunrise in autumn, tapering upwards from the sun's direction along the plane of the ecliptic. Under very favourable conditions it has been traced in the eastern sky in spring to 180 from the sun's position, indicating that it extends beyond the earth's...o...b..t.

Long-continued observations from the summit of the Pic du Midi show that this is really the case, and that it lies almost exactly in the plane of the sun's equator. It is therefore held to be produced by the minute particles thrown off the sun, through those coronal wings and streamers which are visible only during solar eclipses.

The careful study of the solar phenomena has very clearly established the fact that none of the sun's envelopes, from the reversing layer to the corona itself, is in any sense an atmosphere. The combination of enormous gravitative force with an amount of heat which turns all the elements into the liquid or gaseous state, leads to consequences which it is difficult for us to follow or comprehend. There is evidently constant internal movement or circulation in the interior of the sun, resulting in the faculae, the sun-spots, the intensely luminous photosphere, and the chromosphere with its vast flaming coruscations and eruptive protuberances.

But it seems impossible that this incessant and violent movement can be kept up without some great and periodical or continuous inrush of fresh materials to renew the heat, keep up the internal circulation, and supply the waste. Perhaps the movement of the sun through s.p.a.ce may bring him into contact with sufficiently large ma.s.ses of matter to continually excite that internal movement without which the exterior surface would rapidly become cool and all planetary life cease. The various solar envelopes are the result of this internal agitation, uprushes, and explosions, while the vast white corona is probably of little more density than comets' tails, probably even of less density, since comets not unfrequently rush through its midst without suffering any loss of velocity. The fact that none of the solar envelopes are visible to us until the light of the photosphere is completely shut off, and that they all vanish the very instant the first gleam of direct sunlight reaches us, is another proof of their extreme tenuity, as is also the sharply defined edge of the sun's disc. The envelopes therefore consist partly of liquid or vaporous matter, in a very finely divided state, driven off by explosions or by electrical forces, and this matter, rapidly cooling, becomes solidified into minutest particles, or even physical molecules. Much of this matter continually falls back on the sun's surface, but a certain quant.i.ty of the very finest dust is continually driven away by electrical repulsion, so as to form the corona and the zodiacal light. The vast coronal streamers and the still more extensive ring of the zodiacal light are therefore in all probability due to the same causes, and have a similar physical const.i.tution with the tails of comets.

As the whole of our sunlight must pa.s.s through both the reversing layer and the red chromosphere, its colour must be somewhat modified by them. Hence it is believed that, if they were absent, not only would the light and heat of the sun be considerably greater, but its colour would be a purer white, tending towards bluish rather than towards the yellowish tinge it actually possesses.

THE NEBULAR AND METEORITIC HYPOTHESES

As the const.i.tution of the sun, and its agency in producing magnetism and electricity in the matter and orbs around it, afford us our best guide to the const.i.tution of the stars and nebulae, and to their possible action on each other, and even upon our earth, so the mode of evolution of the sun and solar system, from some pre-existing condition, is likely to help us towards gaining some knowledge of the const.i.tution of the stellar universe and the processes of change going on there.

At the very commencement of the nineteenth century the great mathematician Laplace published his Nebular Theory of the Origin of the Solar System; and although he put it forth merely as a suggestion, and did not support it with any numerical or physical data, or by any mathematical processes, his great reputation, and its apparent probability and simplicity, caused it to be almost universally accepted, and to be extended so as to apply to the evolution of the stellar universe. This theory, very briefly stated, is, that the whole of the matter of the solar system once formed a globular or spheroidal ma.s.s of intensely heated gases, extending beyond the orbit of the outermost planet, and having a slow motion of revolution about an axis.

As it cooled and contracted, its rate of revolution increased, and this became so great that at successive epochs it threw off rings, which, owing to slight irregularities, broke up, and, gravitating together, formed the planets. The contraction continuing, the sun, as we now see it, was the result.

For about half a century this nebular hypothesis was generally accepted, but during the last thirty years so many objections and difficulties have been suggested, that it has been felt impossible to retain it even as a working hypothesis. At the same time another hypothesis has been put forth which seems more in accordance with the facts of nature as we find them in our own solar system, and which is not open to any of the objections against the nebular theory, even if it introduces a few new ones.

A fundamental objection to Laplace's theory is, that in a gas of such extreme tenuity as the solar nebula must have been, even when it extended only to Saturn or Ura.n.u.s, it could not possibly have had any cohesion, and therefore could not have given off whole rings at distant intervals, but only small fragments continuously as condensation went on, and these, rapidly cooling, would form solid particles, a kind of meteoric dust, which might aggregate into numerous small planets, or might persist for indefinite periods, like the rings of Saturn or the great ring of the Asteroids.

Another equally vital objection is, that, as the nebula when extending beyond the orbit of Neptune could have had a mean density of only about the two-hundred millionth of our air at sea level, it must have been many hundred times less dense than this at and near its outer surface, and would there be exposed to the cold of stellar s.p.a.ce--a cold that would solidify hydrogen. It is thus evident that the gases of all the metallic and other solid elements could not possibly exist as such, but would rapidly, perhaps almost instantaneously, become first liquid and then solid, forming meteoric dust even before contraction had gone far enough to produce such increased rotation as would throw off any portion of the gaseous matter.

Here we have the foundations of the meteoritic hypothesis which is now steadily making its way. It is supported by the fact that we everywhere find proofs of such solid matter in the planetary s.p.a.ces around us. It falls continually upon the earth. It can be collected on the Arctic and Alpine snows. It occurs everywhere in the deepest abysses of the ocean where there are not sufficient organic deposits to mask it. It const.i.tutes, as has now been demonstrated, the rings of Saturn. Thousands of vast rings of solid particles circulate around the sun, and when our earth crosses any of these rings, and their particles enter our atmosphere with planetary velocity, the friction ignites them and we see falling stars. Comets'

tails, the sun's corona, and the zodiacal light are three strange phenomena, which, though wholly insoluble on any theory of gaseous formation, receive their intelligible explanation by means of excessively minute solid particles--microscopic cosmic dust--driven outward by the tremendous electrical repulsions that emanate from the sun.

Having these and other proofs that solid matter, ranging in size, perhaps, from the majestic orbs of Jupiter and Saturn down to the inconceivably minute particles driven millions of miles into s.p.a.ce to form a comet's tail, does actually exist everywhere around us, and by collisions between the particles or with planetary atmospheres can produce heat and light and gaseous emanations, we find a basis of fact and observation for the meteoritic hypothesis which Laplace's nebular, and essentially gaseous, theory does not possess.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century several writers suggested this idea of the possible formation of the Solar System, but so far as I am aware, the late R.A. Proctor was the first to discuss it in any detail, and to show that it explained many of the peculiarities in the size and arrangement of the planets and their satellites which the nebular hypothesis did not explain. This he does at some length in the chapter on meteors and comets in his _Other Worlds than Ours_, published in 1870. He a.s.sumed, instead of the fire-mist of Laplace, that the s.p.a.ce now occupied by the solar system, and for an unknown distance around it, was occupied by vast quant.i.ties of solid particles of all the kinds of matter which we now find in the earth, sun, and stars. This matter was dispersed somewhat irregularly, as we see that all the matter of the universe is now distributed; and he further a.s.sumed that it was all in motion, as we now know that all the stars and other cosmical ma.s.ses are, and must be, in motion towards or around some centre.

Under these conditions, wherever the matter was most aggregated, there would be a centre of attraction through gravitation, which would necessarily lead to further aggregation, and the continual impacts of such aggregating matter would produce heat. In course of time, if the supply of cosmic matter was ample (as the result shows that it must have been, whatever theory we adopt), our sun, thus formed, would approximate to its present ma.s.s and acquire sufficient heat by collision and gravitation to convert its whole body into the liquid or gaseous condition. While this was going on, subordinate centres of aggregation might form, which would capture a certain proportion of the matter flowing in under the attraction of the central ma.s.s, while, owing to the nearly uniform direction and velocity with which the whole system was revolving, each subordinate centre would revolve around the central ma.s.s, in somewhat different planes, but all in the same direction.

Mr. Proctor shows the probability that the largest outside aggregation would be at a great distance from the central ma.s.s, and this having once been formed, any centres farther away from the sun would be both smaller and very remote, while those inside the first would, as a rule, become smaller as they were nearer the centre. The heated condition of the earth's interior would thus be due, not to the primitive heat of matter in a gaseous state out of which it was formed--a condition physically impossible--but would be acquired in the process of aggregation by the collisions of meteoric ma.s.ses falling on it, and by its own gravitative force producing continuous condensation and heat.

On this view Jupiter would probably be formed first, and after him at very great distances, Saturn, Ura.n.u.s, and Neptune; while the inner aggregations would be smaller, as the much greater attractive power of the sun would give them comparatively little opportunity of capturing the meteoric matter that was continuously flowing towards him.

THE METEORITIC NATURE OF THE NEBULae

Having thus reached the conclusion that wherever apparently nebulous matter exists within the limits of the solar system it is not gaseous but consists of solid particles, or, if heated gases are a.s.sociated with the solid matter they can be accounted for by the heat due to collisions either with other solid particles or with acc.u.mulations of gases at a low temperature, as when meteorites enter our atmosphere, it was an easy step to consider whether the cosmic nebulae and stars may not have had a similar origin.

From this point of view the nebulae are supposed to be vast aggregations of meteorites or cosmic dust, or of the more persistent gases, revolving with circular or spiral motions, or in irregular streams, and so spa.r.s.ely scattered that the separate particles of dust may be miles--perhaps hundreds of miles--apart; yet even those nebulae, only visible by the telescope, may contain as much matter as the whole solar system. From this simple origin, by steps which can be observed in the skies, almost all the forms of suns and systems can be traced by means of the known laws of motion, of heat-production, and of chemical action. The chief English advocate of this view at the present time is Sir Norman Lockyer, who, in numerous papers, and in his works on _The Meteoritic Hypothesis_ and _Inorganic Evolution_, has developed it in detail, as the result of many years' continuous research, aided by the contributory work of continental and American astronomers. These views are gradually spreading among astronomers and mathematicians, as will be seen by the very brief outline which will now be given of the explanations they afford of the main groups of phenomena presented by the stellar universe.

DR. ROBERTS ON SPIRAL NEBULae

Dr. Isaac Roberts, who possesses one of the finest telescopes constructed for photographing stars and nebulae, has given his views on stellar evolution, in _Knowledge_ of February 1897, ill.u.s.trated by four beautiful photographs of spiral nebulae. These curious forms were at first thought to be rare, but are now found to be really very numerous when details are brought out by the camera. Many of the very large and apparently quite irregular nebulae, like the Magellanic Clouds, are found to have faint indications of spiral structure. As more than ten thousand nebulae are now known, and new ones are continually being discovered, it will be a long time before these can all be carefully studied and photographed, but present indications seem to show that a considerable proportion of them will exhibit spiral forms.

Dr. Roberts tells us that all the spiral nebulae he has photographed are characterised by having a nucleus surrounded by dense nebulosity, most of them being also studded with stars. These stars are always arranged more or less symmetrically, following the curves of the spiral, while outside the visible nebula are other stars arranged in curves strongly suggesting a former greater extension of the nebulous matter. This is so marked a feature that it at once leads to a possible explanation of the numerous slightly curved lines of stars found in every part of the heavens, as being the result of their origin from spiral nebulae whose material substance has been absorbed by them.

Dr. Roberts proposes several problems in relation to these bodies: Of what materials are spiral nebulae composed? Whence comes the vortical motion which has produced their forms? The material he finds in those faint clouds of nebulous matter, often of vast extent, that exist in many parts of the sky, and these are so numerous that Sir William Herschel alone recorded the positions of fifty-two such regions, many of which have been confirmed by recent photographs. Dr. Roberts considers these to be either gaseous or with discrete solid particles intermixed. He also enumerates smaller nebulous ma.s.ses undergoing condensation and segregation into more regular forms; spiral nebulae in various stages of condensation and of aggregation; elliptic nebulae; and globular nebulae. In the last three cla.s.ses there is clear evidence, on every photograph that has been taken, that condensation into stars or star like forms is now going on.

He adopts Sir Norman Lockyer's view that collisions of meteorites within each swarm or cloud would produce luminous nebulosity; so also would collisions between separate swarms of meteorites produce the conditions required to account for the vortical motions and the peculiar distribution of the nebulosity in the spiral nebulae. Almost any collision between unequal ma.s.ses of diffused matter would, in the absence of any ma.s.sive central body round which they would be forced to revolve, lead to spiral motions. It is to be noted that, although the stars formed in the spiral convolutions of the nebulae follow those curves, and retain them after the nebulous matter has been all absorbed by them, yet, whenever such a nebula is seen by us edgewise, the convolutions with their enclosed stars will appear as straight lines; and thus not only numbers of star groups arranged in curves, but also those which form almost perfect straight lines, may possibly be traced back to an origin from spiral nebulae.

Motion being a necessary result of gravitation, we know that every star, planet, comet, or nebula must be in motion through s.p.a.ce, and these motions--except in systems physically connected or which have had a common origin--are, apparently, in all directions. How these motions originated and are now regulated we do not know; but there they are, and they furnish the motive power of the collisions, which, when affecting large bodies or ma.s.ses of diffused matter, lead to the formation of the various kinds of permanent stars; while when smaller ma.s.ses of matter are concerned those temporary stars are formed which have interested astronomers in all ages.

It must be noted that although the motions of the single stars appear to be in straight lines, yet the s.p.a.ces through which they have been observed to move are so small that they may really be moving in curved orbits around some central body, or the centre of gravity of some aggregation of stars bright and dark, which may itself be comparatively at rest. There may be thousands of such centres around us, and this may sufficiently explain the apparent motions of stars in all directions.

A SUGGESTION AS TO THE FORMATION OF SPIRAL NEBULae

In a remarkable paper in the Astrophysical Journal (July 1901), Mr. T.C.

Chamberlin suggests an origin for the spiral nebulae, as well as of swarms of meteorites and comets, which seems likely to be a true, although perhaps not the only one.

There is a well-known principle which shows that when two bodies in s.p.a.ce, of stellar size, pa.s.s within a certain distance of each other, the smaller one will be liable to be torn into fragments by the differential attraction of the larger and denser body. This was originally proved in the case of gaseous and liquid bodies, and the distance within which the smaller one will be disrupted (termed the Roche limit) is calculated on the supposition that the disrupted body is a liquid ma.s.s. Mr. Chamberlin shows, however, that a solid body will also be disrupted at a lesser distance dependent on its size and cohesive strength; but, as the size of the two bodies increases, the distance at which disruption will occur increases also, till with very large bodies, such as suns, it becomes almost as large as in the case of liquids or gases.

The disruption occurs from the well-known law of differential gravitation on the two sides of a body leading to tidal deformation in a liquid, and to unequal strain in a solid. When the changes of gravitative force take place slowly, and are also small in amount, the tides in liquids or strains in solids are very small, as in the case of our earth when acted on by the sun and moon, the result is a small tide in the ocean and atmosphere, and no doubt also in the molten interior, to which the comparatively thin crust may partially adjust itself. But if we suppose two dark or luminous suns whose proper motions are in such a direction as to bring them near each other, then, as they approach, each will be deflected towards the other, and will pa.s.s round their common centre of gravity with immense velocity, perhaps hundreds of miles in a second. At a considerable distance they will begin to produce tidal elongation towards and away from each other, but when the disruptive limit is nearly reached, the gravitative forces will be increasing so rapidly that even a liquid ma.s.s could not adjust its shape with sufficient quickness and the tremendous internal strains would produce the effects of an explosion, tearing the whole ma.s.s (of the smaller of the two) into fragments and dust.

But it is also shown that, during the entire process, the two elongated portions of the originally spherical ma.s.s would be so acted upon by gravity as to produce increasing rotation, which as the crisis approached would extend the elongation, and aid in the explosive result. This rapid rotation of the elongated ma.s.s would, when the disruption occurred, necessarily give to the fragments a whirling or spiral motion, and thus initiate a spiral nebula of a size and character dependent on the size and const.i.tution of the two ma.s.ses, and on the amount of the explosive forces set up by their approach.

There is one very suggestive phenomenon which seems to prove that this _is_ one of the modes of formation of spiral nebulae. When the explosive disruption occurs the two protuberances or elongations of the body will fly apart, and having also a rapid rotatory movement, the resulting spiral will necessarily be a double one. Now, it is the fact that almost all the well-developed spiral nebulae have two such arms opposite to each other, as beautifully shown in M. 100 Comae, M. 51 Canum, and others photographed by Dr. I. Roberts. It does not seem likely that any other origin of these nebulae should give rise to a double rather than to a single spiral.

THE EVOLUTION OF DOUBLE STARS

The advance in knowledge of double and multiple stars has been wonderfully rapid, numerous observers having devoted themselves to this special branch.

Many thousands were discovered during the first half of the nineteenth century, and as telescopic power increased new ones continued to flow in by hundreds and thousands, and there has been recently published by the Yerkes Observatory a catalogue of 1290 such stars, discovered between 1871 and 1899 by one observer, Mr. S.W. Burnham. All these have been found by the use of the telescope, but during the last quarter of a century the spectroscope has opened up a new world of double stars of enormous extent and the highest interest.

The telescopic binaries which have been observed for a sufficient time to determine their orbits, range from periods of about eleven years as a minimum up to hundreds and even more than a thousand years. But the spectroscope reveals the fact that the many thousands of telescopic binaries form only a very small part of the binary systems in existence.

The overwhelming importance of this discovery is, that it carries the times of revolution from the minimum of the telescopic doubles downward in unbroken series through periods of a few years, to those reckoned by months, by days, and even by hours. And with this reduction of period there necessarily follows a corresponding reduction of distance, so that sometimes the two stars must be in contact, and thus the actual birth or origin of a double star has been observed to occur, even though not actually seen. This mode of origin was indeed antic.i.p.ated by Dr. Lee of Chicago in 1892, and it has been confirmed by observation in the short s.p.a.ce of ten years.

In a remarkable communication to _Nature_ (September 12th, 1901) Mr.