The Source and Mode of Solar Energy Throughout the Universe

by Isaac W. Heysinger

Retardation of sun-spots by continuous development to the rear, and recession in front, as the sun rotates on its axis. The short arrows represent lines of planetary energy; the long arrows show the direction of the sun’s rotation.

The dark inner disk represents the solar core, the white circle the photosphere, the mottled area the chromosphere and faculæ, and the dark outer ring the corona. Loops and tufted sprays are shown, caused by inflowing faculæ in front, caught by the uprush of active portions of the sun-spot towards rear.

It will thus be seen that a sun-spot is not merely a fixed eruption, like a volcano, but rather a continuous series of eruptions, like a line of activity following, for example, the great terrestrial volcanic curve which extends up the western coast of America, across the Pacific Ocean and Asia, and into Central and Southern Europe, for during its progression its scene of action is constantly being shifted to the rear; it is like a furrow cut by a plough, in which the upturned sod is constantly falling in at one end of the furrow while the plough is cutting a new furrow at the other, except that in this case the plough is relatively fixed overhead, and the field itself passes along beneath it. Consequently, the center of activity of a sun-spot is only in its rear portions, generally considered, and the whole sun-spot is gradually retreating, by successive filling up in front and opening out behind, farther and farther to the rear,—that is to say, to the east,—so that retardation relatively to the rotational advance of the photosphere necessarily ensues.

But when the sun-spot is developed upon or near the equatorial line this retardation is not so considerable, for the deeper layers of the photosphere in those regions are slower to act and require greater energy to affect them, so that all except deep and violent eruptions fail to show themselves at the surface at all, and the heated faculæ are carried directly forward along the surface of the equatorial swell, so that the center of activity is driven forward more rapidly than in the higher latitudes, and the rate of progression is more nearly coincident with that of the photosphere. But if these facts are correctly stated and explained, we may have to revise our calculations of the sun’s rotational period, for retardation to some extent must occur in all cases, if in any.

A sun-spot, we thus perceive, is an elongated wave or ridge of eruption along the rotational direction of the sun’s body. Why, then, it may be asked, is not this line of eruption continuous entirely around the sun? For the same reason, it may be answered, that our own cyclones are not continuous, though caused substantially in the same manner, and that volcanic eruptions only occur at long intervals, though the forces at work are continuous. Lowering of temperature follows swiftly after eruption, and as the deeper structures of the solar nucleus become gradually affected, instead of volatilization of the outer layers of the surface, we will have diffused gaseous expansion of large portions, and finally of the entire solar mass, which cannot as a whole be volatilized by any conceivable planetary energy. We see these operations exemplified in heating a bar of copper in a Bunsen flame; the latter first turns green from surface volatilization of the copper, but as the heat is communicated to the deeper structures the green flame disappears, and the whole additional heat goes to raise the temperature of the mass.

These processes in the sun are thus seen to be self-compensatory in their nature. They are the means provided to distribute the restricted areas of abnormally heated photosphere over the solar surface, and finally to cause the absorption of the whole excess of heat in the sun’s central mass. The balance is so evenly maintained, however, that, were all the planets equally distributed with reference to the sun’s surface, such sun-spots would be the exception and not the rule, and their distribution would be equal and constant; but, as the planets continually change their positions with reference to the sun and to each other, only by some such provision of nature could the internal structure of the sun be maintained without serious derangement, or, indeed, final disruption. So nature distributes her stores of heat upon the earth. These beautiful self-compensations we shall find suddenly appearing, as we advance, in all parts of the field of astronomical research.

It may seem like temerity to advance statements so positive and specific as to the cause, constitution, and progression of sun-spots, in the absence of any considerable accumulation of observations to sustain them, but the few examples which we have noted are in accordance with these views, and when attention is once called to the basic principles on which they depend, observations will doubtless be made in abundance to prove or disprove what has been here stated. The mere fact of a differential rate of advance among sun-spots, as they pass across the solar face, of itself demonstrates that the active causes of these phenomena must be extra-solar, and if so, their only possible dynamic source must be looked for in the planets, and the remaining conclusions will of necessity follow as a corollary. We may even, by merely examining an accurate drawing of a sun-spot, determine its position and direction upon the solar sphere from which it was delineated by its lines of active eruption and influx of faculæ, and also whether it be a new spot or one which has passed entirely beyond its active stage and is about to finally disappear.

As for the faculæ which striate the photosphere, the mottlings and so-called “willow-leaves,” any one who will quietly gaze downward upon the turbid surface of the Mississippi or other similar river, in mid-channel, will see plenty of such faculæ: the river is full of them. The heavier, intermingled clay, slowly subsiding, is caught up in the turmoil beneath the surface and swept upward in elongated ovals and eddies, the larger swells nearly colorless, and others of all shades of ochre and yellow, and the whole as richly mottled, sometimes, as the variegated pattern of a Persian carpet. If we substitute for the subsiding clay the rapidly sinking heavy metallic vapors, and enlarge the scale from the dimensions of the river to those of the sun, we will have the mottled solar surface with its kaleidoscopic changes, the so-called “willow-leaves,” and the faculæ in all their glory. A careful study of the sun will show most clearly that only in some such explanation as the present view affords can a rational basis for its varied phenomena be found.

Illustrating complex lines of planetary electrical energy produced by inclination of sun’s axis.—A B, A′ B′, plane of planetary orbits.