Fig. 184.
The following table (given by Professor Young) contains a list of all the elements which have, up to the present time, been detected with certainty in the sun's atmosphere. It also gives the number of bright lines in the spectrum of each element, and the number of those lines which have been matched by dark lines in the solar spectrum:—
| Elements. | Bright Lines. | Lines Reversed. | Observer. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Iron | 600 | 460 | Kirchhoff. |
| 2. Titanium | 206 | 118 | Thalen. |
| 3. Calcium | 89 | 75 | Kirchhoff. |
| 4. Manganese | 75 | 57 | Angström. |
| 5. Nickel | 51 | 33 | Kirchhoff. |
| 6. Cobalt | 86 | 19 | Thalen. |
| 7. Chromium | 71 | 18 | Kirchhoff. |
| 8. Barium | 26 | 11 | Kirchhoff. |
| 9. Sodium | 9 | 9 | Kirchhoff. |
| 10. Magnesium | 7 | 7 | Kirchhoff. |
| 11. Copper? | 15 | 7? | Kirchhoff. |
| 12. Hydrogen | 5 | 5 | Angström. |
| 13. Palladium | 29 | 5 | Lockyer. |
| 14. Vanadium | 54 | 4 | Lockyer. |
| 15. Molybdenum | 27 | 4 | Lockyer. |
| 16. Strontium | 74 | 4 | Lockyer. |
| 17. Lead | 41 | 3 | Lockyer. |
| 18. Uranium | 21 | 3 | Lockyer. |
| 19. Aluminium | 14 | 2 | Angström. |
| 20. Cerium | 64 | 2 | Lockyer. |
| 21. Cadmium | 20 | 2 | Lockyer. |
| 22. Oxygen a | 42 | 12 ± bright | H. Draper. |
| Oxygen b | 4 | 4? | Schuster. |
In addition to the above elements, it is probable that several other elements are present in the sun's atmosphere; since at least one of their bright lines has been found to coincide with dark lines of the solar spectrum. There are, however, a large number of elements, no traces of which have yet been detected; and, in the cases of the elements whose presence in the solar atmosphere has been established, the matching of the lines is far from complete in the majority of the cases, as will be seen from the above table. This want of complete coincidence of the lines is undoubtedly due to the very high temperature of the solar atmosphere. We have already seen that the lines of the spectrum change with the temperature; and, as the temperature of the sun is far higher than any that we can produce by artificial means, we might reasonably expect that it would cause the disappearance from the spectrum of many lines which we find to be present at our highest temperature.
Lockyer maintains that the reason why no trace of the spectral lines of certain of our so-called elements is found in the solar atmosphere is, that these substances are not really elementary, and that the intense heat of the sun resolves them into simpler constituents.
Motion at the Surface of the Sun.
166. Change of Pitch caused by Motion of Sounding Body.—When a sounding body is moving rapidly towards us, the pitch of its note becomes somewhat higher than when the body is stationary; and, when such a body is moving rapidly from us, the pitch of its note is lowered somewhat. We have a good illustration of this change of pitch at a country railway station on the passage of an express-train. The pitch of the locomotive whistle is considerably higher when the train is approaching the station than when it is leaving it.
167. Explanation of the Change of Pitch produced by Motion.—The pitch of sound depends upon the rapidity with which the pulsations of sound beat upon the drum of the ear. The more rapidly the pulsations follow each other, the higher is the pitch: hence the shorter the sound-waves (provided the sound is all the while travelling at the same rate), the higher the pitch of the sound. Any thing, then, which tends to shorten the waves of sound tends also to raise its pitch, and any thing which tends to lengthen these waves tends to lower its pitch.
When a sounding body is moving rapidly forward, the sound-waves are crowded together a little, and therefore shortened; when it is moving backward, the sound-waves are drawn out, or lengthened a little.