12 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



TACCHIXI ON THE PROTUBERANCES OF THE SUN. 



Professor Tacchini, of the Observatory of Palermo, has late- 

 ly published some observations upon the protuberances of the 

 sun, and sums up his conclusions as follows : 



1. That the protuberances are divisible into two great cat- 

 egories -filame?itous, and simply vaporous. 



2. That in the great refractor of Merz the protuberances 

 are observed with the greatest precision and clearness. 



3. That with powerful instruments the separation of the 

 protuberances into the two categories is quite evident, w T hile 

 with small instruments the observer may fall into the error 

 of attributing a common structure, without distinction, to the 

 protuberances in general, which explains the differences in 

 the various observations made with ordinary instruments. 



4. That the whole of the border of the sun is a series of 

 flames. 3 A, September 23, 230. 



EXPLOSION IN THE SUN. 



The Boston Journal of Chemistry contains a communica- 

 tion from Professor Young, of Dartmouth, in reference to an 

 outburst of solar energy remarkable for its suddenness and 

 violence. Professor Young's attention had been directed for 

 some time toward an enormous protuberance of hydrogen 

 cloud on the eastern limb of the sun, which had remained 

 with little change since the preceding noon, in no way re- 

 markable except for its size. It w T as made up mostly of fila- 

 ments, nearly horizontal, and floated above the chromosphere, 

 with its lower surface at a height of some fifteen thousand 

 miles, but was connected to it by three or four columns 

 brighter and more active than the rest. The total length 

 w r as about one hundred thousand miles, and depth about for- 

 ty thousand. 



After an absence of a few minutes, a remarkable change 

 was observed by Professor Young to have taken place in this 

 object, caused by its violent disruption during that period. 

 In place of the quiet cloud, the space above it was filled with 

 floating debris, a mass of detached, vertical, fusiform filaments 

 in rapid motion, some of them having already reached a 

 height of nearly one hundred thousand miles, and still rising 

 with a motion almost perceptible to the eye, until in ten min- 



