THE SUN 285 



Of these Professor H. H. Turner in his A Voyage in 

 Space (p. 214) says: 



By a tragic accident he [M. Hansky, a Russian astronomer] 

 was drowned, and no one else has paid the same attention to 

 photographing these rice grains on the sun; but he obtained a 

 sufficient series of pictures to show at what a great rate they 

 are moving about. Even in a few seconds the pattern becomes 

 quite differently arranged, as you can see by comparing one of 

 M. Hansky 's pictures with another. They must be moving at 

 great speed, some of them perhaps at 100 miles a second * * * 

 The whole surface of the sun is in a state of constant turmoil. 



And on p. 244 he adds : 



When I tried these different ideas, I concluded that the 

 particles (in the corona) were behaving as a fountain behaves, 

 being both shot up and falling down again * * * My conclusion is 

 that there are a large number of solid particles in the corona, be- 

 cause there is a great deal of polarized light; and other astrono- 

 mers have found the same thing. 



So much for the superficial eruptions, but what of 

 those more deeply seated? The cycles of these are natur- 

 ally longer ; all the more severe too, for that very reason. 

 Late researches have led to the knowldge that the ' * solar 

 constant ' ' is not so constant after all, but varies rhythmi- 

 cally by periods of five days, of ten days, and so on, prov- 

 ing the occurrence of fluctuations in the sun himself. 

 All of these variations are easily accounted for by postu- 

 lating a series of eruptive levels , each with its own char- 

 acteristic interval of manifestation. 



THE SUN-SPOTS 



One of the periods of which we have been speaking 

 is, of course, that of the sun-spots. In this phenomenon 

 we have an example of sufficient distinctness and legibil- 

 ity to enable us, by a close study of available data, to 

 determine the solar level from which it emanates. This 

 is not exactly an easy task, for the reason that, as before 

 stated, the blast carries before it in its ascent vast quanti- 

 ties of miscellaneous debris from all of the superior 

 layers which requires to be differentiated out. The test, 



