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They appear to be occasioned by fitful and irregular disturbances, and have none of the systematic quality which would be required for the elucidation of sun-spot theories. Indeed, they almost certainly take place at a great height above the actual openings in the photosphere. As to vertical motions above the limb, on the other hand, we have direct visual evidence of a truly amazing kind.
It must be added that various observers disputed priority of discovery of the sun's spots with Galileo. Unquestionably a sun-spot had been seen by earlier observers, and by them mistaken for the transit of an inferior planet. Kepler himself had made this mistake.
Perhaps the theory of solar magnetic influence upon the weather is best known in connection with the ``sun-spot cycle. This, at any rate, is, as already remarked, closely associated with the corona. Its existence was discovered in 1843 by the German astronomer Schwabe.
Sun-spots were first observed about 1610 by Galileo, so they have been known long enough for us to believe that they are not new worlds about to be flung into space. Galileo was the great Italian astronomer who invented the telescope. The chances are that the present sun-spot may give us an opportunity of seeing a fine aurora.
This is regarded as a hoax by scientific men who understand such matters. It is hard to prove exactly whether the present great sun-spot is a large hole in the surface of the sun, or a large mass of the body of the sun which is about to be detached from it; but in all such matters it is wiser to take the most practical and least sensational view.
The pseudo-planet, indeed, was detected shortly afterwards on the Greenwich photographs, and was found to have been seen by M. Ventosa at Madrid in its true character of a sun-spot without penumbra; but Leverrier had meantime undertaken the investigation of a list of twenty similar dubious appearances, collected by Haase, and republished by Wolf in 1872.
The curve of magnetic disturbance followed with its usual strict fidelity the anomalous fluctuations of the sun-spot curve. The ensuing minimum occurred early in 1889, and was succeeded in 1894 by a maximum slightly less feeble than its predecessor. It cannot be said that much progress has been made towards the disclosure of the cause, or causes, of the sun-spot cycle.
No archæologist, whether Young or Champollion deciphering the Rosetta Stone, or Rawlinson copying the cuneiform inscription on the cliff of Behistun, was ever faced by a more fascinating problem than that which confronts the solar physicist engaged in the interpretation of the hieroglyphic lines of sun-spot spectra.
It is also uncertain what effect these convulsions of the sun have on the amount of the heat and light which is poured forth from the orb. The common opinion that the sun-spot years are the hottest is not yet fully verified. Below the photosphere lies the vast unknown mass of the unseen solar realm.
The stream dashed through shadow and sun-spot, splashing a sparkling way straight into the wilderness of Les Errues; and along its fern-fringed banks strode McKay with swift, light steps.
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