Science in Short ChaptersWilliams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu)
Science
Science in Short Chapters
Williams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu)
Science
We must count such comets, and such rings filled with attendant
fragments, not merely by tens or hundreds, but by thousands and tens of
thousands, even by millions; the path of the earth being but a thread
in space, and yet a hundred or two are strung upon it.
In this article Mr. Proctor seems strongly disposed to return to
the theory which attributes solar heat and light to a bombardment
of meteors from without, and the solar corona and zodiacal light as
visible presentments of these meteors. Still, however, he clings to the
more recent explanation which regards the corona, the zodiacal light,
and the meteors as matter ejected from the sun by the same forces as
those producing the solar prominences. For my own part I shall not
be at all surprised if we find that, ere long, these two apparently
conflicting hypotheses are fully reconciled.
The progress of solar discovery has been so great since January, 1870,
when my ejection theory was published, that I may now carry it out
much further than I then dared, or was justified in daring to venture.
Actual measurement of the projectile forces displayed in some of the
larger prominences renders it not merely possible, but even very
probable, that some of the exceptionally great eruptive efforts of the
sun may be sufficiently powerful to eject solar material beyond the
reclaiming reach of his own gravitating power.
In such a case the banished matter must go on wandering through the
boundless profundity of space until it reaches the domain of some other
sun, which will clutch the fragment with its gravitating energies,
and turn its straight and ever onward course into the curved orbit.
Thus the truant morsel from our sun will become the subject of another
sun—a portion of another solar system.
What one sun may do, another and every other may do likewise, and, if
so, there must be a mutual bombardment, a ceaseless interchange of
matter between the countless suns of the universe. This is a startling
view of our cosmical relations, but we are driving rapidly towards a
general recognition of it.
The November star showers have perpetrated some irregularities this
year. They have been very unpunctual, and have not come from their
right place. We have heard something from Italy, but not the tidings of
the Leonides that were expected. Instead of the great display of the
month occurring on the 13th and 14th, it was seen on the 27th. We have
accounts from different parts of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales,
also from Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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