54 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



astonished world of astronomers learned first, in 1842, 

 that mighty red protuberances of a nature as yet un- 

 explained, but certainly vast beyond all our powers of 

 conception, surround the surface of our great luminary* 

 It needed but a brief study of the pictures made by 

 those who observed the eclipse, to see that in the first 

 place these phenomena were undoubtedly solar, and 

 secondly, that the real magnitude of some of the 

 prominences was enormously greater than that of 

 the earth on which we live. Whether these were 

 mountains heated to incandescence by the solar fires, 

 or fiery clouds suspended in the solar atmosphere, or 

 lastly, flames rising like mighty tongues from the solar 

 surface, few ventured to pronounce. But it was plainly 

 seen that, whatever they might be, they surpassed all 

 hitherto discovered phenomena within the whole range 

 of the solar system in interest and magnificence. The 

 telescope had hitherto shown nothing which could well 

 be compared with these strange solar appendages. The 

 mountains and valleys in the moon, the lands and seas 

 of Mars, the belts of Jupiter and Saturn, and even the 

 mighty ring-system which girdles the last-named orb 

 all these, interesting though they doubtless are in 

 themselves, yet sink into utter insignificance compared 

 with solar appendages so vast that, at a moderate 

 estimate, some of them must have a height exceeding 

 the diameter of Jupiter the giant of the solar system. 

 The real existence of the coloured prominences was 

 not admitted, however, without further evidence. In 

 all ages of astronomy there have been those who- 



