Science in Short ChaptersWilliams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu)
Science
Science in Short Chapters
Williams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu)
Science
What will become of these volleys of solid matter thus ejected with the
furious and protracted explosions forming the solar prominences? In
order to answer this question, we must remember that the spectroscope,
as recently applied, merely displays the gaseous, chiefly the hydrogen,
ejections; that these great gaseous flames bear a similar relation to
the solid projectiles that the flash of a gun does to the grape-shot
or cannon-ball. Mr. Lockyer says: “In one instance I saw a prominence
27,000 miles high change enormously in the space of ten minutes; and,
lately, I have seen prominences much higher born and die in an hour.”
He has recently measured an actual velocity of 120 miles per second
in the movements of this _gaseous_ matter of the solar eruptions, the
initial velocity of which must have been much greater.[5] If such is
the velocity of the gaseous ejections, what must be that of the solid
projectiles, and where must they go?
A cosmical cannonade is a necessary result of the conditions I have
sketched, and as prominence-ejections are continually in progress,
there must be a continual outpouring from the sun of solid fragments,
which must be flung far beyond the limits of the gaseous prominences.
As the luminosity of these glowing particles must be very small
compared with that of the photosphere, they will be invisible in
the glare of ordinary sunshine; but if our eyes be protected from
this, they may then be rendered visible, both by their own glow and
the solar light they are capable of reflecting. They should be seen
during a total eclipse, and should exhibit radiant streams proceeding
irregularly from different parts of the sun, but most abundantly from
the neighborhood of the spot regions. As these spot regions occupy the
intermediate latitudes between the poles and the equator of the sun,
the greatest extensions of the outstreamings should be N.E. and S.W.,
and S.E. and N.W., while to the N., S., E., and W.—that is, opposite
the poles and equator of the sun—there should be a lesser extension.
The result of this must be an approximation to a quadrilateral figure,
the diagonals of which should extend in a N.E. and S.W., and a S.E. and
N.W. direction, or thereabouts. I say “thereabouts,” because the zone
of greatest activity is not exactly intermediate between the poles and
the equator, but lies nearer to the solar equator.
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