The Source and Mode of Solar Energy Throughout the Universe

by Isaac W. Heysinger

Of this star, Professor Ball says, “Applying the improved spectroscopic process to Algol, he [Vogel] determined on one night that Algol was retreating from the earth at a speed of twenty-six miles per second …. When Vogel came to repeat his observations, he found that Algol was again moving with the same velocity, but this time towards the earth instead of from it …. It appeared that the movements were strictly periodic; that is to say, for one day and ten hours the star is moving towards us, and then for a like time it moves from us, the maximum speed being … twenty-six miles a second …. It is invariably found that every time the movement of retreat is concluded the star loses its brilliance, and regains it again at the commencement of the return movement …. The spectroscopic evidence admits of no other interpretation save that there must be another mighty body in the immediate vicinity of Algol …. Algol must be attended by a companion star which, if not absolutely as devoid of intrinsic light as the earth or the moon, is nevertheless dark relatively to Algol. Once in each period of revolution this obscure body intrudes itself between the earth and Algol, cutting off a portion of the direct light from the star and thus producing the well-known effect.” This is, in fact, a periodic transit or eclipse of Algol by a planet, such as we see in eclipses of our own sun by the moon and the inner planets, except that Algol’s planet is apparently single like our moon with reference to the earth, and that it is relatively much larger than any of our own planets, as we would necessarily suppose it to be, if solitary. Its mass has been computed by the effects which it produces, and we learn that it is not a dark sun with a brilliant planet, but a brilliant sun with a dark planet, just as our solar system presents. “Algol, at the moment of its greatest eclipse, has lost about three-fifths of its light; it therefore follows that the dark satellite must have covered three-fifths of the bright surface …. The period of maximum obscuration is about twenty minutes, and we know the velocity of the bright star, which, along with the period of revolution, gives the magnitude of the orbit.” From these data it has been computed that the globe of Algol itself is about one-fourth larger than that of our visible sun, but its mass is so much less that its weight is only one-half that of our sun, so that its body is probably gaseous. The author concludes, “No one, however, will be likely to doubt that it is the law of gravitation, pure and simple, which prevails in the celestial spaces, and consequently we are able to make use of it to explain the circumstances attending the movements of Algol’s dark companion. This body is the smaller of the two, and the speed with which it moves is double as great as that of Algol, so that it travels over as many miles in a second as an express train can get over in an hour. The companion of Algol is about the same size as our sun, but has a mass only one-fourth as great. This indicates a globe of matter which must be largely in the gaseous state, but which, nevertheless, seems to be devoid of intrinsic luminosity. Their distance [apart] is always some three million miles. This is, however, an unusually short distance when compared with the dimensions of the two globes themselves.” With this exception, the author says, “the movements of Algol and its companion are not very dissimilar to movements in the solar system with which we are already familiar.” It will be seen that the want of luminosity in the dark companion of Algol finds a ready explanation in the fact that it is a planet, acting precisely as our own planets do, and that the luminosity of Algol itself is directly attributable to the electricity developed by the presence of this planet rotating axially and orbitally around it, and the darkness of the planet itself is the necessary correlative of the heat and light of its sun. The planet has about one-half the density of Saturn, while Algol has one-half the density of the sun, and hence we should expect to find on Algol an atmosphere largely composed of glowing hydrogen, and on its planet an atmosphere largely composed of oxygen, in which, doubtless, float enormous clouds of aqueous vapor. The interpretation is direct and conclusive, and upon no other hypothesis can the facts be explained, for their close connection with each other demonstrates their common origin, and their masses are not so different one from the other as to permit, on any theory of their coequal origin as suns, one to glow with the fires of youth and energy and the other to have grown dark and dead from old age and exhaustion, and especially so if still in its gaseous stage, which is that which must characterize its highest state of incandescent energy from the most active condensation of its volume, if the nebular hypothesis has any validity whatever. In fact, this example alone, if the constitution of Algol’s dark satellite is really gaseous, must go very far to throw the gravest doubt, in itself, on the validity of this hypothesis.

The star Beta, of the constellation Lyra, has a full period of twelve days and twenty-two hours, divided into two periods of six days and eleven hours, in each of which the star has a maximum brightness of about the three and one-half magnitude, but in one period the minimum is about the four and one-third magnitude, while in the other it is about the four and one-half magnitude. This peculiarity points, it is said, to an opaque orb with a satellite, the satellite being occulted by the primary in the alternative transits, and therefore the loss of light is less.

The star Delta of Cepheus is quite different, however, for, while it takes only one, day and fourteen hours in passing from its minimum to maximum of brightness, it occupies three days and nineteen hours, or somewhat more than double this time, in passing from maximum to minimum. Two or three hundred of these variable stars are already known. The above examples are cited in detail because they furnish the strongest possible proof of the truth of the hypothesis which we are endeavoring to present. While the movements of the stars Algol and Beta Lyræ may find an adequate interpretation in the one case in a large occulting planet, and in the other in an occulting planet with a satellite, it is obvious that Mira and Delta Cephei cannot be explained except by the presence of planetary bodies or satellites which do not mechanically occult the light of their suns. In these regularly variable stars it is the light which varies, but of course the solar heat must vary also,—that is to say, the solar energy varies regularly, but with unequal periods of growth and decline and with larger periods of cyclical variation in addition. Such variations can only be produced by the action of permanently connected and orbitally rotating planetary bodies, acting dynamically through space, to regularly increase and diminish the solar energy, and such bodies can only do this by their orbital positions with reference to each other and to the central sun itself. In this case, since the activity of solar energy is most unquestionably varied by the planetary energies, by their position and movements, at least a portion of solar energy must be due to planetary action, and if this be so, it may be affirmed with certainty that substantially all solar energy may be produced in the same way; for, otherwise, we seek for two diverse causes to produce a single effect, which may be produced by one. We have no knowledge, however, of any planetary energy which could operate to increase or diminish the energy of the central sun in its emission of light, except that which we have already presented, and no theory of our own sun’s energy hitherto advanced has ever taken cognizance of the planetary energies of our system as an effective cause for those of the sun. But while the sun’s energy is—as it must be in this case—the outcome of that of the planets, it is equally obvious that the planets themselves can have no permanent, inherent energy of their own to generate or modify such energy of the sun, since they are in fact supplied by the solar energy, and their motions are controlled and regulated by the sun itself. Hence the inference is irresistible that the planets must derive their primary force from an external source not solar, and this they can only do by means of their rotation in space, and the only force derivable from space of which we have any knowledge is electricity, so that the circle thus becomes complete. How now shall we explain these periodical aberrations of energy? The color of a star, as we know, is no criterion of its age or size. The color is due to atmospheric absorption of the radiant light. The double stars, for example, revolve around each other at regular periods, and they are necessarily of nearly the same age, as sidereal ages are computed, but they frequently differ one from the other in color, and multiple stars may be all different each from the others; and the color, as before stated, is no criterion of size, for a small sun, with its glowing hydrogen in a state of high incandescence, and with few absorption bands in its spectrum, will appear bluish-white, or of that specific type of stars, without reference to size, while a much larger sun, with its light darkened by broad absorption bands and sun-spots, will appear orange or red; and, consequently, difference of color can be no criterion of distance, since a blue-white star of small size will outshine a red orb of much greater magnitude, whether it be more or less distant. The variable stars, for these reasons, belong to the order of red stars mostly, if not altogether. We must also bear in mind that sun-spots do not diminish the solar heat, as they are the result of increased and not of diminished energy. Electric currents of high potential pass directly, as we know, along the lines of least resistance to their opposite center of polarity, so that two planets nearly in conjunction with each other transmit their currents almost directly towards the sun’s center, and upon the same point of solar latitude, while, if at right angles with the sun, they must deliver their electricity along converging lines and thus strike the solar surface at different points. Currents of electricity of high potential also (see “Electricity in the Service of Man,” page 75), by their own passage, facilitate the passage of succeeding currents, so that generators discharging along the same lines find less and less resistance. It is true that we find no appreciable resistance in the passage of these currents between the earth and the sun, as their velocity is that of light, but both light and electricity may be equally retarded by resistance in a small degree. We know also that in the condensed hydrogen atmosphere of the sun there must be resistance, and also that the resistance in fluids diminishes as the temperature rises. Considering now the variable star Mira, as above described, we observe, as is the case with Delta Cephei, also cited, that the period between its greatest light, in a descending scale, and its least is about twice as long as its rise from minimum to maximum. During a period of four years (1672 to 1676) it is said that it was not visible at all.

Possible solar system of variable star Mira.—D, central sun with axis of rotation considerably inclined from perpendicular to planetary plane; A, B, double internal planet, like the earth and moon, with short orbital period; C, large external planet, like Jupiter, with long period; line A′, B′, C′, conjunction, period of greatest energy; A, B, C, opposition, period of least planetary energy.

If Mira be considered a relatively small sun, with its axis strongly inclined to the planetary plane, and having three planets only, two of them constituting a double planet, like the earth and moon, but nearly equal in size, and having a rotation about the sun in nearly eleven months and a rotation about each other in the same period, and, besides these, a much more distant large planet, something like our Jupiter, with an orbital period of many years, so that the cycle of relative positions is complete in about eighty-eight of the shorter periods of variation, we would have such results as we see in Mira. Twice in each revolution of the double planet its two members and their sun would be in conjunction, and we would have great brilliancy and whiteness until the metallic elements began to volatilize in increased proportions; then an era of wide absorption bands and redness, gradually increasing to a maximum after its periods of greatest light, and then slowly diminishing as the double planet advanced in its rotation; and, finally, as it again approached conjunction, the brilliant hydrogen illumination, subsequently followed by the gradually darkened spectrum, and so on, while the large outer planet by its various positions would first relatively retard and then accelerate the variation until its grand cycle was complete. The permanent disappearance for years, if true, may be due to other causes, which will be referred to in considering the phenomena of new and temporary stars. Many of the irregular variables may doubtless be similarly explained,—our own sun, in fact, being a variable with a period of about eleven years,—and doubtless the apparent irregularity in most cases is due to lack of sufficient time for observation. Those stars which are in fact really irregular in their variation owe their changes, doubtless, to the same causes which produce new stars, so called, and “suns in flames,” which will be next considered.

Among the countless stars of heaven a great catastrophe seems occasionally to occur. A star bursts out into sudden flame, to all appearance, or a great fixed star appears where no star had ever been seen before. In Professor Proctor’s article, “Suns in Flames” (“Myths and Marvels of Astronomy”), we will find an extended discussion of these wonderful phenomena. The astronomer Tycho Brahe described the one which appeared in 1572 as follows: “It suddenly shone forth in the constellation Cassiopeia with a splendor exceeding that of stars of the first magnitude, or even Jupiter or Venus at their brightest, and could be seen by the naked eye on the meridian at full day. Its brilliancy gradually diminished from the time of its first appearance, and at the end of sixteen months it entirely disappeared, and has never been seen since. During the whole time of its apparition its place in the heavens remained unaltered, and it had no annual parallax, so that its distance was of the same order as that of the fixed stars.” Tycho described its changes of color as follows: first, as having been of a bright white; afterwards of a reddish-yellow, like Mars or Aldebaran; and, lastly, of a leaden white, like Saturn. In 1604 a first-magnitude star suddenly appeared in the right foot of Ophiucus. “It presented appearances resembling those shown by the former, and disappeared after a few months.” Many other cases are cited by astronomers, and in 1866 “a star appeared in the Northern Crown, the observations of which threw great light on the subject of so-called new stars. In the first place, it was found that where this new star appeared there had been a tenth-magnitude star; the new star, then, was in reality a star long known, which had acquired new brilliancy. “When first observed with this abnormal lustre, it was shining as a star of the second magnitude. Examined with the spectroscope, its light revealed a startling state of things in those remote depths of space. The usual stellar spectrum, rainbow-tinted and crossed by dark lines, was seen to be crossed also by four exceedingly bright lines, the spectrum of glowing hydrogen…. The greater part of the star’s light manifestly came from this glowing hydrogen, though it can scarcely be doubted that the rest of the spectrum was brighter than before the outburst, the materials of the star being raised to an intense heat. The maximum brightness exceeded that of a tenth-magnitude star nearly eight hundred times. After shining for a short time as a second-magnitude star, it diminished rapidly in lustre, and it is now between the ninth and tenth magnitudes” (Appleton’s Cyclopædia). Of this new star, Professor Ball says, “Another memorable achievement in the early part of Dr. Huggins’s career is connected with the celebrated new star that burst forth in the Crown in 1866. It seemed a fortunate coincidence that just at the moment when the spectroscope was beginning to be applied to the sidereal heavens a star of such marvellous character should have presented itself …. The feature which made the spectrum of the new star essentially distinct from that of any other star that had been previously observed was the presence of certain bright lines superposed on a spectrum with dark lines of one of the ordinary types. The position of certain of these lines showed that one of the luminous gases must be hydrogen …. The spectroscope showed that there must have been something which we may describe as a conflagration of hydrogen on a stupendous scale, and this outburst would account for the sudden increase in luminosity of the star, and also to some extent explain how so stupendous an illumination, once kindled, could dwindle away in so short a time as a few days.” It will be seen that these new stars leap suddenly into great brilliancy: it is a matter of a few hours only. After remaining a very short time in this stage of abnormal incandescence, they gradually die out again in lustre and revert to their original condition; they are not consumed either in body or atmosphere.

Several theories have been advanced to account for these remarkable phenomena; see “Suns in Flames,” by Professor Proctor. One is, in effect, that by some sudden “internal convulsion a large volume of hydrogen and other gases was evolved from it, the hydrogen by its combination with some other element giving out the lines represented by the bright lines, and at the same time heating to a point of vivid incandescence the solid matter of the star’s surface …. As the liberated hydrogen gas became exhausted the flame gradually abated, and with the consequent cooling the star’s surface became less vivid and the star returned to its original condition;” which, by the way, it never could have done if its atmosphere had been exposed to such a disintegration, without the construction of an entirely new atmosphere precisely similar to the one just destroyed. The process would be one of simple combustion. It requires the evolution of enormous volumes of hydrogen from within the planet, and of other enormous volumes of something else, by which to burn it up and yet not burn up the original hydrogen envelope. This other element could not have previously existed outside the solar body and contiguous thereto, or it would have burned up the ordinary hydrogen envelope of the sun long before, as well as the metallic vapors floating therein. Both these mutually hostile gases must have come from within, and this is manifestly impossible, as we should thus have explosion and solar destruction, but not combustion. There is no reason to believe that hydrogen, the lightest of elements, could have remained occluded within the solar mass, to the exclusion of the heavier metals, if disassociated, and if held combined no such sudden liberation could occur. Besides, such convulsion would be impossible in any sun at all resembling ours, as any further liberation of gases from internal condensation must be due to solar contraction, hence gradual, and not sudden. Moreover, such liberation of hydrogen gas from within would show its spectrum loaded, at its earliest eruption, with absorption bands; and, finally, the convulsion presupposes as great an activity, and consequently as great a difficulty, before the phenomenon as the phenomenon itself presents; for such vast disturbance of mass would be more difficult to account for, and require more energy to produce, than the results themselves. Moreover, the whole mass of the star appeared to increase equally in temperature, as shown by the spectrum, and, if produced by an internal convulsion, this must have extended to, if not proceeded from, its core; so that while the combustion of hydrogen might have ceased in a very brief time, the intense heat of the solar mass could not have been dissipated for thousands of years. It would, in fact, have disrupted the whole orb.

Another theory is that this vast incandescence was caused by the “violent precipitation of some mighty mass—perhaps a planet—upon the globe of that remote sun, by which the momentum of the falling mass would be changed into molecular motion; in other words, into heat and light.” This theory is no more plausible than the other, since it fails to account for the enormous volume of hydrogen, with bright lines, as a result of such contact; while Professor Proctor very clearly shows that such contact would have been preceded, necessarily, by repeated partial grazings, as the outside body repeatedly passed in swifter and closer passage by the sun in its gradually approaching orbital revolutions, and that the increase of light and heat must have been measured by years instead of by hours. The same difficulties exist in the supposed passage of the star through nebulæ or star clouds, of which Professor Proctor says, “As for the rush of a star through a nebulous mass, that is a theory which would scarcely be entertained by any one acquainted with the enormous distances separating them …. All we certainly know suggests that the distances separating them from each other are comparable with those which separate star from star.” In fact, no tenable theory has been advanced which will cover the phenomena. Professor Proctor describes a star which flamed out in 1876. At midnight, November 24, a star of the third magnitude was noticed in the constellation of the Swan; its light was very yellow; its brilliancy rapidly faded. On December 2 it was equal to a star of the fifth magnitude only, and the color, which had been yellow, was now greenish-blue. “The star’s spectrum at this time consisted almost entirely of bright lines. December 5 he found three bright lines of hydrogen, the strong double line of sodium, the triple line of magnesium, and two other lines. One of these last seemed to agree exactly in position with a bright line belonging to the corona seen around the sun during total eclipse.” The star afterwards faded away gradually until quite invisible to the naked eye. It will be noticed that none of the above elements—sodium, potassium, or magnesium—are such as would combine with hydrogen to produce the phenomena in question. Professor Proctor concludes, “This evidence seems to me to suggest that the intense heat which suddenly affected this star had its origin from without.” He suggests possible meteoric flights; but meteoric stones themselves are separated in space by enormous distances, and these, if converged in orbital flight, would present the same phenomena of successive grazings as a small planet approaching under like circumstances, and by their gradually increasing incandescence we should certainly have other elements visible in the spectroscope besides those observed. And these meteoric bodies, if projected into the sun, would pass in a very brief time through the hydrogen envelope, producing only local phenomena, so that their first blow would be manifested in volatilization of the outer portions of the mass and broad absorption bands, and consequent redness of the planet, exhibiting great heat, but not great light. In such case the bright lines of hydrogen, if they appeared at all, would only be visible as an after-consequence, and not at the earliest moment of conflagration,—that is, the star might grow from red to white, but by no possibility the reverse. It is, however, characteristic of these new stars that their first flash, as it were, is into the incandescence of directly glowing hydrogen, with its bright lines, then through a series of gradually increasing sun-spots, and finally a slow return to their original condition and apparent magnitude. It is obviously a surface phenomenon of the solar atmosphere, primarily, then followed by consequences involving only the outer surface of the solar core, but with no observable permanent change in the character or constitution of the mass of the sun itself. These characteristics are invariable, and the sequence of phenomena is the same in all the cases observed.