The Source and Mode of Solar Energy Throughout the Universe

by Isaac W. Heysinger

CHAPTER VII.

TEMPORARY STARS, METEORS, AND COMETS.

What, then, is the probable cause of these terrific conflagrations, as they appear to us? Take an ordinary electric induction machine,—a Holtz or a Wimshurst,—and, if the surrounding air is moist, as we operate it we will find that the results are poor, the sparks short and relatively few; but let us take the machine into another room in which the atmosphere is dry and crisp. A wondrous change will occur, and instead of a current which could scarcely flash across a few inches of space, we will now have so great an increase of energy that its tension will even cause the spark to perforate and destroy the glass walls of the heavy Leyden jars in which it is condensed. The vast realms of space, with their attenuated vapors, are the field in which the planetary electric generators operate, and into which, likewise, myriads of suns constantly pour their light and heat. We may consider this space, according to the popular view, to be uniform in constitution and density throughout all its parts,—that it is, in fact, like a vast, silent, and motionless dead sea. But this cannot possibly be true, any more than throughout the vast compass of our own atmosphere; for while some parts of space are peopled by millions of solar systems, others, as we can plainly see, so far as telescopic vision extends, are comparatively vacant. Far more electricity is being abstracted (so to speak) in some parts of space than in others, and far more heat and light are being poured back to restore the equilibrium in some than in others. We have already seen that the temperature at the exterior surface of the terrestrial atmosphere is estimated to be more than two hundred degrees higher than in the realms of open interplanetary space; hence there must be currents,—currents of rotation like cyclones, vortical currents like whirlwinds, currents of transmission like our land- and sea-breezes and the trade-winds,—and, in fact, all space must be in a state of constant displacement and replacement, and, if visible, we should see it like a vast room filled with smoke, in which currents of every shape and direction and of all velocities would be manifest. Such currents could throw nebulæ during their condensation into rotation which could never rotate of their own motion, or gather to centers of aggregation vast whirling clouds of spatial matter, and in the spiral nebulæ we may see many such movements of rotation in apparent active progress. Of these we read in Appleton’s Cyclopædia, “They have the appearance of a maelstrom of stellar matter, and are among the most interesting objects in the heavens.” In Professor Nichol’s splendid work (“The Architecture of the Heavens,” 1850) we may see magnificent engravings of these wonderful phenomena, from the drawings by Lord Rosse, and no one can study these figures without realizing the presence of vast currents in space.

In the great spiral nebula in the constellation Canes Venatici (see illustration in Chapter XII.) we perceive that the tail of the smaller nebula has been drawn into the outer convolution of the great spiral, against the radial repulsion of the latter nebula, as we can see by its curvature. This can only be due to a tremendous inflowing current in space. Were the deflection due to gravity the trend would be to the center and not to the outer convolution of the larger nebula. Professor Nichol says, “The spiral figure is characteristic of an extensive class of galaxies.” Not only in the spiral, but in other forms of nebulæ we may observe these currents of space, so that we cannot fail to perceive that they exist, and we should even conclude, a priori, that these must exist.

In the elongated linear nebula in Sobieski’s Crown, illustrated above, its length is deflected into irregular curves apparently due to counter-currents of space. These gaseous nebulæ, Flammarion says, “appear like immense vaporous clouds tossed about by some rough winds, pierced with deep rents, and broken in jagged portions.” It may be said generally that every sun, as it drifts through space, must leave a wake of increased electric potential among the molecules which line its pathway. Beyond the limits of every vortex extend radial or tangential, polar or equatorial, streams of space, and these must extend without limit until deflected or neutralized by other conditions. Throughout all space, just as in our own atmosphere, but vastly more slowly, there must be an infinitude of movements in every direction,—movements in lines, circles, vortices, ellipses and irregular curvatures, and of all possible varieties of mass and volume.

Suppose, now, a sailing vessel lighted with incandescent lamps, the electrical currents for the support of which are derived from the chemical action of sea-water on multiple pairs of suitable metallic plates arranged to extend downward as a galvanic battery into the ocean as the ship sails along, and that these plates, by the chemical action of the sea-water at ordinary, temperatures, should furnish a sufficient current to properly light the vessel. If the constancy of such current depended on the average temperature of the sea-water, at, say, sixty degrees Fahrenheit, we should find that, on suddenly crossing into the Gulf Stream, with a temperature twenty degrees higher, the energy of the battery would be rapidly increased and the lights would glow with increased brilliancy until, on emerging from the Gulf Stream at its opposite side, the original status would be gradually restored. If these distant solar systems, in their drift through space, should encounter a corresponding stream under an increased molecular tension, more highly heated, for example, or charged with electrical potential by the surrounding solar systems, or otherwise, we should expect a similar result to ensue,—that the currents would be increased suddenly, both in quantity and intensity, and all the phenomena of “blazing” stars be revealed in the precise order in which we see them. Professor Proctor seems to have had some such idea of space vaguely in his mind when he says, in his “Familiar Essays,” “One is invited to believe that the star may have been carried by its proper motions into regions where there is a more uniform distribution of the material whence this orb recruits its fires. It may be that, in the consideration of such causes of variation affecting our sun in long-past ages, a more satisfactory explanation than any yet obtained may be found of the problem geologists found so perplexing,—the former existence of a tropical climate in places within the temperate zone, or even near the arctic regions. Sir John Herschel long since pointed to the variation of the sun as a possible cause of such changes of climate.” In confirmation of the view that such changes may be due to the passage of a solar system into or through such a “Gulf Stream” of space, we quote the following from Professor Proctor’s “Suns in Flames:” “It is noteworthy that all the stars which have blazed out suddenly, except one, have appeared in a particular region of the heavens,—the zone of the Milky Way (all, too, in one-half of that zone). The single exception is the star in the Northern Crown, and that star appeared in a region which I have found to be connected with the Milky Way by a well-marked stream of stars; not a stream of a few stars scattered here and there, but a stream where thousands of stars are closely aggregated together, though not quite so closely as to form a visible extension of the Milky Way …. Now, the Milky Way and the outlying streams of stars connected with it seem to form a region of the stellar universe where fashioning processes are still at work.” In just such regions of potential energy should we look for such currents in space, as, on our own earth, the Gulf Stream and the trade-winds, as well as cyclones and other atmospheric movements, find their origin under precisely parallel circumstances,—to wit, the outpour upon and direct precipitation of increased quantities of heat at the tropics or other local centers of such development. The effects of such an increase of quantity and potential in an electrical current are clearly illustrated in the device previously referred to, in which electrolytic decomposition was effected in a pail of water; we find it also in the burning out of the brushes and commutators in dynamo-electric machines and in telegraphic apparatus during thunder-storms and the like. Allowing a solar system a drift through space only equal to that of our own, which has a relatively slow movement, it would traverse such a “Gulf Stream” of space seven hundred thousand miles wide in a single day. But it may not even have passed through; it may merely have grazed the margin of such a current; for the motions of solar systems are not controlled by the same forces as those upon which their electrical energies depend.

Professor Ball, in his chapter on the great heat-wave of 1892, says, “Towards the end of July an extraordinarily high temperature, even for that period of the year, prevailed over a very large part of the North American continent. The so-called heat-wave then seems to have travelled eastward and crossed the Atlantic Ocean; … a fortnight after the occurrence of unusually great heat in the New World there was a similar experience in the Old World …. This discussion will at all events enable us to make some reply to the question which has often been asked, as to what was the cause of the great heat-wave …. It is, however, quite possible that certain changes in progress on the sun may act in a specific manner on our climate …. It cannot be denied that local, if not general, changes in the sun’s temperature must be the accompaniment of the violent disturbances by which our luminary is now and then agitated. It is, indeed, well known that there are occasional outbreaks of solar activity, and that these recur in a periodic manner; it is accordingly not without interest to notice that the present year has been one of the periods of this activity. We are certainly not going so far as to say that any connection has been definitely established between a season of exuberant sun-spots and a season remarkable for excessive warmth; but, as we know that there is a connection between the magnetic condition of the earth and the state of solar activity, it is by no means impossible that climate and sun-spots may also stand in some relationship to each other.” These local deviations are doubtless due to planetary positions with reference to the sun, but more general variations must depend upon the constitution of such parts of space as the solar system may occupy; but even then they will be but temporary, since the sun’s volume will rapidly expand or contract so as finally to restore the normal emission of solar heat, as will be further explained later on in this work.

Phenomena of a new or temporary star, a “star in flames.”—1, normal state of star, photosphere more highly heated than chromosphere: 2, stage of highest incandescence, chromosphere expanded and more highly heated than photosphere, bright line spectrum: 3, stage of recession, chromosphere diminishing in incandescence, heat acting upon solar core, numerous spots, volatilization of metallic surface, spectrum of dark absorption bands; 4, return to normal state again.