A Short History of Astronomy

by Arthur Berry

302. The spectroscope also gives information as to certain motions taking place on the sun. It was pointed out in 1842 by Christian Doppler (1803-1853), though in an imperfect and partly erroneous way, that if a luminous body is approaching the observer, or vice versa, the waves of light are as it were crowded together and reach the eye at shorter intervals than if the body were at rest, and that the character of the light is thereby changed. The colour and the position in the spectrum both depend on the interval between one wave and the next, so that if a body giving out light of a particular wave-length, e.g. the blue light corresponding to the F line of hydrogen, is approaching the observer rapidly, the line in the spectrum appears slightly on one side of its usual position, being displaced towards the violet end of the spectrum; whereas if the body is receding the line is, in the same way, displaced in the opposite direction. This result is usually known as Doppler’s principle. The effect produced can easily be expressed numerically. If, for example, the body is approaching with a speed equal to 1∕1000 of light, then 1001 waves enter the eye or the spectroscope in the same time in which there would otherwise only be 1000; and there is in consequence a virtual shortening of the wave-length in the ratio of 1001 to 1000. So that if it is found that a line in the spectrum of a body is displaced from its ordinary position in such a way that its wave-length is apparently decreased by 1∕1000 part, it may be inferred that the body is approaching with the speed just named, or about 186 miles per second, and if the wave-length appears increased by the same amount (the line being displaced towards the red end of the spectrum) the body is receding at the same rate.

Some of the earliest observations of the prominences by Sir J. N. Lockyer (1868), and of spots and other features of the sun by the same and other observers, shewed displacements and distortions of the lines in the spectrum, which were soon seen to be capable of interpretation by this method, and pointed to the existence of violent disturbances in the atmosphere of the sun, velocities as great as 300 miles per second being not unknown. The method has received an interesting confirmation from observations of the spectrum of opposite edges of the sun’s disc, of which one is approaching and the other receding owing to the rotation of the sun. Professor Dunér of Upsala has by this process ascertained (1887-89) the rate of rotation of the surface of the sun beyond the regions where spots exist, and therefore outside the limits of observations such as Carrington’s ([§ 298]).

303. The spectroscope tells us that the atmosphere of the sun contains iron and other metals in the form of vapour; and the photosphere, which gives the continuous part of the solar spectrum, is certainly hotter. Moreover everything that we know of the way in which heat is communicated from one part of a body to another shews that the outer regions of the sun, from which heat and light are radiating on a very large scale, must be the coolest parts, and that the temperature in all probability rises very rapidly towards the interior. These facts, coupled with the low density of the sun (about a fourth that of the earth) and the violently disturbed condition of the surface, indicate that the bulk of the interior of the sun is an intensely hot and highly compressed mass of gas. Outside this come in order, their respective boundaries and mutual relations being, however, very uncertain, first the photosphere, generally regarded as a cloud-layer, then the reversing stratum which produces most of the Fraunhofer lines, then the chromosphere and prominences, and finally the corona. Sun-spots, faculae, and prominences have been explained in a variety of different ways as joint results of solar disturbances of various kinds; but no detailed theory that has been given explains satisfactorily more than a fraction of the observed facts or commands more than a very limited amount of assent among astronomical experts.

Fig. 99.—The great comet of 1882 (ii) on November 7th. From a photograph by Dr. Gill.

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304. More than 200 comets have been seen during the present century; not only have the motions of most of them been observed and their orbits computed ([§ 291]), but in a large number of cases the appearance and structure of the comet have been carefully observed telescopically, while latterly spectrum analysis and photography have also been employed.

Independent lines of inquiry point to the extremely unsubstantial character of a comet, with the possible exception of the bright central part or nucleus, which is nearly always present. More than once, as in 1767 (chapter XI., [§ 248]), a comet has passed close to some member of the solar system, and has never been ascertained to affect its motion. The mass of a comet is therefore very small, but its bulk or volume, on the other hand, is in general very great, the tail often being millions of miles in length; so that the density must be extremely small. Again, stars have often been observed shining through a comet’s tail (as shewn in fig. 99), and even through the head at no great distance from the nucleus, their brightness being only slightly, if at all, affected. Twice at least (1819, 1861) the earth has passed through a comet’s tail, but we were so little affected that the fact was only discovered by calculations made after the event. The early observation (chapter III., [§ 69]) that a comet’s tail points away from the sun has been abundantly verified; and from this it follows that very rapid changes in the position of the tail must occur in some cases. For example, the comet of 1843 passed very close to the sun at such a rate that in about two hours it had passed from one side of the sun to the opposite; it was then much too near the sun to be seen, but if it followed the ordinary law its tail, which was unusually long, must have entirely reversed its direction within this short time. It is difficult to avoid the inference that the tail is not a permanent part of the comet, but is a stream of matter driven off from it in some way by the action of the sun, and in this respect comparable with the smoke issuing from a chimney. This view is confirmed by the fact that the tail is only developed when the comet approaches the sun, a comet when at a great distance from the sun appearing usually as an indistinct patch of nebulous light, with perhaps a brighter spot representing the nucleus. Again, if the tail be formed by an outpouring of matter from the comet, which only takes place when the comet is near the sun, the more often a comet approaches the sun the more must it waste away; and we find accordingly that the short-period comets, which return to the neighbourhood of the sun at frequent intervals ([§ 291]), are inconspicuous bodies. The same theory is supported by the shape of the tail. In some cases it is straight, but more commonly it is curved to some extent, and the curvature is then always backwards in relation to the comet’s motion. Now by ordinary dynamical principles matter shot off from the head of the comet while it is revolving round the sun would tend, as it were, to lag behind more and more the farther it receded from the head, and an apparent backward curvature of the tail—less or greater according to the speed with which the particles forming the tail were repelled—would be the result. Variations in curvature of the tails of different comets, and the existence of two or more differently curved tails of the same comet, are thus readily explained by supposing them made of different materials, repelled from the comet’s head at different speeds.

The first application of the spectroscope to the study of comets was made in 1864 by Giambattista Donati (1826-1873), best known as the discoverer of the magnificent comet of 1858. A spectrum of three bright bands, wider than the ordinary “lines,” was obtained, but they were not then identified. Four years later Sir William Huggins obtained a similar spectrum, and identified it with that of a compound of carbon and hydrogen. Nearly every comet examined since then has shewn in its spectrum bright bands indicating the presence of the same or some other hydrocarbon, but in a few cases other substances have also been detected. A comet is therefore in part at least self-luminous, and some of the light which it sends us is that of a glowing gas. It also shines to a considerable extent by reflected sunlight; there is nearly always a continuous spectrum, and in a few cases—first in 1881—the spectrum has been distinct enough to shew the Fraunhofer lines crossing it. But the continuous spectrum seems also to be due in part to solid or liquid matter in the comet itself, which is hot enough to be self-luminous.