TWO MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE
Is That So?
During these bright sunshiny
dayg of autumn, lefi look it the
nearest star which alone shines
by day, our sun. But mind, if
you"re going to look into it, use
a piece of smoked glass or you
may burn your eyes.
Reason enough: it's a hot ball.
At its surface the temperature is
10.800 degrees Fahrenheit; in
side, infinitely hotter, perhaps
nearer 46,000,000 degrees! And
even at a distance of 93,000,000
miles, the heat is too concentrated.
Roughly speaking, the sun s
diameter is 865,400 miles, about
109 times that of our earth while
its volume is about 1,300,000
times that of our earth. Although
a gaseaus incadescent ball, its
surface gravity is 28 times that
of our earth. That means that a
Sunday, October 28, 1958
man of 143 pounds would weigh
almost three tons up there.
Within the sun tremendous
pressures build up: in the heart,
perhlps a billion tons per square
inch and a density seven times
that of lead.
In The New Astronomy (Simon
and Schuster, N.Y.), Armin J.
Deutsch says that atomic nuclei
colliding in this, incredible heat
and pressure strike each other
with such furious violence that
one nuclear species may be trans
formed into another. The most
important of these processes, he
adds, build helium nuclei out of
hydrogen.
By these thermonuclear reac
tions, he estimates that 564,000,
000 tons of the sun's hydrogen
are transmitted every second in
to 360,000,000 tons of helium.
Most of the 4.000,000 tons of
mass that melt away every sec
ond, he explains, are converted
into radiant energy.
This radiant energy flows out
from the sun's incandescent sur
face at the rate of half a million
billion billion horsepower!
Earth Small Target
Fortunately because of our
distance the earth is but a small
target and is struck by less than
half a billionth part of the total
solar radiation.
I say fortunately, advisedly:
if we were only 10 per cent clos
er to the sun, the heat would be
come so intense that it would
burn us up. On the other hand,
if we were only 10 per cent far
ther away our entire planet
would freeze up: glaciers would
grow rapidly, rains would cease
and with the end of the water
evele would come the end of
plant life. And the end of plant
life would mean the inevitable
end of man. That's us.
What seems to be a bright
smooth surface of our sun-star
is actually an incandescent at
mosphere about 200 miles thick.
Yet even when we look at the
sun through a powerful telescope.
ELECT
A MAN WHO
KNOWS WHAT
HE'S DOING!
Allen Curry has lived in
Jackson County over 30-years.
He knows the people and
their problems. He has had
over 15 years of experience
in county governmental de
partments - wos for three
years a township assessor in
Kansas. Allen Curry has the
experience necessary for this
important office.
ELECT
ALLEN D. CURRY
COUNTY
ASSESSOR.
Pi. Ad Jackson Co. BP
Central Comm.
EUGENE BURNS
Hangar-Naturalist
the sun seems to have a razor
sharp edge.
How come? Remember our dis
tance. At 93.000,000 miles from
the eye piece of our powerful in
strumenta, even an atmosphere
of 200 miles thick will look like
a sharp edge. At that distance,
in fact, 200 miles amounts to the
same thing as looking at a hu
man hair at a distance of 150
feet.
Quite likely the sun's chemi
cal contents are much the same
as that of our earth's: In fact, of
the 92 elements known to be in
our crust, some 66 have been
found in the sun thanks to the
solar spectrum. About those 26
still missing, don't worry most
of these are so rare on our earth
that we do not expect to be able
to detect them in the sun.
One of the still unsolved puz
zles of our sun is its so-called
sunspots. They range in size from
less than 500 mile across bare
ly observable through a tele
scoupe, to huge naked-eye see
able objects more than 50,000
miles across. The reason they
look dark is not because they
permit us to look at solid matter
in the sun but simply because
they are some 2,000 degrees cool
er than the surrounding atmos
pheric gases.
Occasionally these sunspots
gather in great groups and then
spots covering more than a bil
lion square miles result. The big
gest recorded blackened an area
of more than 6 billion square
miles. Small spots last only a
few days: large ones may persist
over three months.
Sunspots come and go in cy
cles of an average of every 11.3
years although the periods of
maximum spottedness may vary
a year or two.
Strangely, animal population
cycles seem to match this sun
spot cycle. Some naturalists
have made much of this. Possibly
the plants have more vitamins
during the least sunspot periods,
they say, and with more vita
mins animals are healthier and
birth rates go up . . . Could be.
(Copyright, 1956. by Eugene
Burns)
(Released by McClure News
paper Syndicate)
, Free: By special arrangement
with the editors of the Encyclo
pedia Americana, my panel of
judges will award each week to
the reader who sends me the best
question on nature and wildlife
a complete 30-volume set of this
world-famous refernce work in a
h a n dsome Sealcraft binding.
Each week new questions will be
Hearing on Flood Control Scheduled
A public hearing on flood
control on Rogue river and its
tributaries will be held in the
Josephine county library in
Grants Pass at 9:30 a.m. Thurs
day. Nov. 15. the Army corps
of engineers announced Friday.
The hearing was first sched
uled for yesterday, but was post
poned because the corps of eng
ineers would be unable to have
a representative at the hearing.
Col. Jackson Graham, district
engineer, Portland, said all in
terested parties have been in
vited to be present or represent
ed at the hearing, including
considered. Sorry, I simply can't
answer your many friendly let
ters. Please address your letter
to: Is That So! co Medford Mail
Tribune, Box 575, Sausalito,
Calif.
representatives of federal, state,
county and municipal agencies.
Colonel Graham said those at
tending will be given an op
portunity to express their views
cn the extentof improvement de
sired. Oral statements will be
heard, but for accuracy of rec
ord all important facts and argu
ments should be submitted in
writing. Records of the hearing
will be forwarded for consider
ation by the secretary of the
Army.
BUILD OBSERVATORY
Tokyo (U.P.) Radio Peiping
said Saturday that Communist
China has started construction of
an observatory on the "roof of
the world'' for research in con
nection with the coming geo
physical year. The site is the Ti
betan plateau near Lhasa, 11,667
feet above sea level.
Lutheran Church Host
lo Teachers Today
St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran
church, 1020 East Main St., Med
ford,' is host today to Sunday
school teachers from Lutheran
congregations in Ashland. Duns
muir. Grants Pass, Klamath Falls
and Roseburg. The training rally
will start at 4 p.m.
Teachers from the congrega
tions meet once each year to dis
cuss teaching and methods in
teaching children in Sunday
school.
Enrollment, worship activity,
aims and the use of audio-visual
materials in the Sunday school
are among topics for considera
tion at the rally.
Arthur Philips, chairman of
the teachers' group, said atten
tion will be given to the role of
the Sunday school in combating
problems that confront juveniles.
RETURN PRISON
Landsberg, Germany (U.PJ
The U.S. Army said Saturday it
will return the grim Landsberg
war crimes prison to the Bava
rian government at the end of
this month. The Army will re
tain only a small wing of the
prison to house the 31 Nazi war
criminals still serving their sentences.
f CHRISTIAN X
I SCIENCE J
lv HEALS!
Sunday
10:15
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1400 K.C.
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purchase of 7
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served all day long No
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A
GET READY FOR WINTER
NEW TREADS
applied on sound tir bodies
or en your tire
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approximately
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Five-Dollars
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FIRESTONE
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retirement f
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Contains Rust
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325
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Special $5.00 bonus allowance
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A
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3-DAY TIRE SALE
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Closeout of '56 models
21 inch
Table TV
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95
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Closeout of '56 models
21 inch
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16495
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e Powerful 4-rube chassis
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3J U VUNilia