Popular Science Monthly/Volume 83/August 1913/The Earth and Sun as Magnets
THE
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY
AUGUST, 1913
| THE EARTH AND SUN AS MAGNETS[1] |
By Dr. GEORGE ELLERY HALE
MOUNT WILSON SOLAR OBSERVATORY
IN 1891, Professor Arthur Schuster, speaking before the Royal Institution, asked a question which has been widely debated in recent years: "Is every large rotating body a magnet?" Since the days of Gilbert, who first recognized that the earth is a great magnet, many theories have been advanced to account for its magnetic properties. Biot, in 1805, ascribed them to a relatively short magnet near its center. Gauss, after an extended mathematical investigation, substituted a large number of small magnets, distributed in an irregular manner, for the single magnet of Biot. Grover suggested that terrestrial magnetism may be caused by electric currents, circulating around the earth and generated by the solar radiation. Soon after Rowland's demonstration in 1876 that a rotating electrically charged body produces a magnetic field, Ayrton and Perry attempted to apply this principle to the case of the earth. Rowland at once pointed out a mistake in their calculation, and showed that the high potential electric charge demanded by their theory could not possibly exist on the earth's surface. It remained for Schuster to suggest that a body made up of molecules which are neutral in the ordinary electrical or magnetic sense may nevertheless develop magnetic properties when rotated.
We shall soon have occasion to examine the two hypotheses advanced in support of this view. While both are promising, it can not be said that either has been sufficiently developed to explain completely the principal phenomena of terrestrial magnetism. If we turn to experiment, we find that iron globes, spun at great velocity in the laboratory, fail to exhibit magnetic properties. But this can be accounted for on either hypothesis. What we need is a globe of great size, which
has been rotating for centuries at high velocity. The sun, with a diameter one hundred times that of the earth (Fig.l), may throw some light on the problem. Its high temperature wholly precludes the existence of permanent magnets: hence any magnetism it may exhibit must be due to motion. Its great mass and rapid linear velocity of rotation should produce a magnetic field much stronger than that of the earth. Finally, the presence in its atmosphere of glowing gases, and the well-known effect of magnetism on light, should enable us to explore its magnetic field even at the distance of the earth. The effects of ionization, probably small in the region of high pressure beneath the photosphere and marked in the solar atmosphere, must be determined and allowed for. But with this important limitation, the sun may be used by the physicist for an experiment which can not be performed in the best equipped laboratory.
Schuster, in the lecture already cited, remarked:
Summing up the situation in April, 1912, he repeated:
The evidence (whether the sun is a magnet) rests entirely on the form of certain rays of the corona, which—assuming that they indicate the path of projecting particles—seem to be deflected as they would be in a magnetic field, but this evidence is not at all decisive.
There remained the possibility of an appeal to a conclusive test of magnetism: the characteristic changes it produces in light which originates in a magnetic field.
Before describing how this test has been applied, let us rapidly recapitulate some of the principal facts of terrestrial magnetism. You see upon the screen the image of a steel sphere (Fig. 2), which has been
strongly magnetized. If iron filings are sprinkled over the glass plate that supports it, each minute particle becomes a magnet under the influence of the sphere. When the plate is tapped, to relieve the friction, the particles fall into place along the lines of force, revealing a characteristic pattern of great beauty. A small compass needle, moved about the sphere, always turns so as to point along the lines of force. At the magnetic poles, it points toward the center of the sphere. Midway between them, at the equator, it is parallel to the diameter joining the poles.
As the earth is a magnet, it should exhibit lines of force resembling those of the sphere. If the magnetic poles coincided with the poles of rotation, a freely suspended magnetic needle should point vertically
downward at one pole, vertically upward at the other, and horizontally at the equator. A dip needle, used to map the lines of force of the earth, is shown on the screen. I have chosen for illustration an instrument designed for use at sea, on the non-magnetic yacht Carnegie (Fig. 3), partly because the equipment used by Dr. Bauer in his extensive surveys represents the best now in use, and also because I wish to contrast the widely different means employed by the Carnegie Institution for the investigation of solar and terrestrial magnetic phenomena. The support of the dip-needle is hung in gimbals, so that observations may be taken when the ship's deck is inclined. The smallest possible amount of metal enters into the construction of this vessel, and where its use could not be avoided, bronze was employed instead of iron or steel. She is thus admirably adapted for magnetic work, as is shown by the observations secured on voyages already totaling more than 100,000 miles. Her work is supplemented by that of land parties, bearing instruments to remote regions where magnetic observations have never before been made.
The dip-needle clearly shows that the earth is a magnet, for it behaves in nearly the same way as the little needle used in our experiment with the magnetized sphere. But the magnetic poles of the earth do not coincide with the geographical poles. The north magnetic pole, discovered by Ross and last visited by Amundsen in 1903, lies near Baffin's Bay, in latitude 70° north, longitude 97° west. The position of the south magnetic pole, calculated from observations made in its vicinity by Captain Scott, of glorious memory, in his expedition of 1901–04, is 72° 50′ south latitude, 153° 45′ east longitude. Thus the two magnetic poles are not only displaced about 30° from the geographical poles: they do not even lie on the same diameter of the earth. Moreover, they are not fixed in position, but appear to be rotating about the geographical poles in a period of about 900 years. Tn addition to these peculiarities, it must be added that the dip-needle shows the existence of local magnetic poles, one of which has recently been found by Dr. Bauer's party at Treadwell Point, Alaska. At such a place the direction of the needle undergoes rapid change as it is moved about the local pole.
The dip-needle, as we have seen, is free to move in a vertical plane. The compass needle moves in a horizontal plane. In general, it tends to point toward the magnetic pole, and as this does not correspond with the geographical pole, there are not many places on the earth's surface where the needle indicates true north and south. Local peculiarities, such as deposits of iron ore, also affect its direction very materially. Thus a variation chart, which indicates the deviation of the compass needle from geographical north, affords an excellent illustration of the irregularities of terrestrial magnetism. The necessity for frequent and accurate surveys of the earth's magnetic field is illustrated by the fact that the Carnegie has found errors of five or six degrees in the variation charts of the Pacific and Indian oceans.
In view of the earth's heterogeneous structure, which is sufficiently illustrated by its topographical features, marked deviations from the uniform magnetic properties of a magnetized steel sphere are not at all surprising. The phenomenon of the secular variation, or the rotation of the magnetic poles about the geographical poles, is one of the peculiarities toward the solution of which both theory and experiment should be directed.
Passing over other remarkable phenomena of terrestrial magnetism.
we come to magnetic storms and auroras, which are almost certainly of solar origin.
Here is a photograph of the sun, as it appears in the telescope (Fig. 4).[2] Scattered over its surface are sun-spots, which increase and decrease in number in a period of about 11.3 years. It is well known that a curve, showing the number of spots on the sun, is closely similar to a curve representing the variations of intensity of the earth's magnetism. The time of maximum sun-spots corresponds with that of reduced intensity of the earth's magnetism, and the parallelism of the two curves is too close to be the result of accident. We may therefore conclude that there is some connection between the spotted area of the sun and the magnetic field of the earth.
We shall consider a little later the nature of sun-spots, but for the present we may regard them simply as solar storms. When spots are numerous the entire sun is disturbed, and eruptive phenomena, far transcending our most violent volcanic outbursts, are frequently visible. In the atmosphere of the sun, gaseous prominences rise to great heights. This one, reaching an elevation of 85,000 miles, is of the quiescent type, which changes gradually in form and is abundantly found at all phases of the sun's activity. But such eruptions as the one of March 25, 1895, photographed with the spectroheliograph of the Kenwood Observatory, are clearly of an explosive nature. As these photographs show, it shot upward through a distance of 146,000 miles in 24 minutes, after which it faded away.
When great and rapidly changing spots, usually accompanied by eruptive prominences, are observed on the sun, brilliant displays of the aurora (Fig. 5) and violent magnetic storms are often reported. The magnetic needle, which would record a smooth straight line on the photographic film if it were at rest, trembles and vibrates, drawing a broken and irregular curve. Simultaneously, the aurora flashes and pulsates, sometimes lighting up the northern sky with the most brilliant display of red and green discharges.
Birkeland and Störmer have worked out a theory which accounts in a very satisfactory way for these phenomena. They suppose that electrified particles, shot out from the sun with great velocity, are drawn in toward the earth's magnetic poles along the lines of force. Striking the rarified gases of the upper atmosphere, they illuminate them, just as the electric discharge lights up a vacuum tube. There is reason to believe that the highest part of the earth's atmosphere consists of rarified hydrogen, while nitrogen predominates at a lower level. Some of the electrons from the sun are absorbed in the hydrogen, above a height of 60 miles. Others reach the lower-lying nitrogen, and descend to levels from 30 to 40 miles above the earth's surface. Certain still 
more penetrating rays sometimes reach an altitude of 25 miles, the lowest hitherto found for the aurora. The passage through the atmosphere of the electrons which cause the aurora also gives rise to the irregular disturbances of the magnetic needle observed during magnetic storms.
The outflow of electrons from the sun never ceases, if we may reason from the fact that the night sky is at all times feebly illuminated by the characteristic light of the aurora. But when sun-spots are numerous, the discharge of electrons is most violent, thus explaining the frequency of brilliant auroras and intense magnetic storms during sunspot maxima. It should be remarked that the discharge of electrons does not necessarily occur from the spots themselves, but rather from the eruptive regions surrounding them.
Our acquaintance with vacuum tube discharges dates from an early period, but accurate knowledge of these phenomena may be said to begin with the work of Sir William Crookes in 1876. A glass tube, fitted with electrodes, and filled with any gas, is exhausted with a suitable pump until the pressure within it is very low. When a high voltage discharge is passed through the tube, a stream of negatively-charged particles is shot out from the cathode, or negative pole, with great velocity. These electrons, bombarding the molecules of the gas within the tube, produce a brilliant illumination, the character of which depends upon the nature of the gas. The rare hydrogen gas in the upper atmosphere of the earth, when bombarded by electrons from the sun, glows like the hydrogen in this tube. Nitrogen, which is characteristic of a lower level, shines with the light which can be duplicated here.
But it may be remarked that this explanation of the aurora is only hypothetical, in the absence of direct evidence of the emission of electrons by the sun. However, we do know that hot bodies emit electrons. Here is a carbon filament in an exhausted bulb. When heated white hot, a stream of electrons passes off. Falling upon this electrode, the electrons discharge the electroscope with which it is connected. Every one who has to discard old incandescent lamps is familiar with the result of this outflow. The blackening of the bulbs is due to finely divided carbon carried away by the electrons, and deposited upon the glass.
Now we know that great quantities of carbon in a vaporous state exist in the sun, and that many other substances, also present there, emit electrons in the same way. Hence we may infer that electrons are abundant in the solar atmosphere.
The temperature of the sun is between 6,000° and 7,000° C, twice as high as we can obtain by artificial means. Under solar conditions, the velocity of the electrons emitted in regions where the pressure is not too great may be sufficient to carry them to the earth. Arrhenius holds that the electrons attach themselves to molecules or groups of molecules, and are then driven to the earth by light-pressure.
In certain regions of the sun, we have strong evidence of the existence of free electrons. This leads us to the question of solar magnetism and suggests a comparison of the very different conditions in the sun and earth. Much alike in chemical composition, these bodies differ principally in size, in density and in temperature. The diameter of the sun is more than one hundred times that of the earth, while its density is only one quarter as great. But the most striking point of difference is the high temperature of the sun, which is much more than sufficient to vaporize all known substances. This means that no permanent magnetism, such as is exhibited by a steel magnet or a lodestone, can exist in the sun. For if we bring this steel magnet to a red heat, it loses its magnetism, and drops the iron bar which it previously supported. Hence, while some theories attribute terrestrial magnetism to the presence within the earth of permanent magnets, no such theory can apply to the sun. If magnetic phenomena are to be found there, they must result from other causes.
The familiar case of the helix illustrates how a magnetic field is produced by an electric current flowing through a coil of wire. But according to the modern theory, an electric current is a stream of electrons. Thus a stream of electrons in the sun should give rise to a magnetic field. If the electrons were whirled in a powerful vortex, resembling our tornadoes or water-spouts, the analogy with the wire helix would be exact, and the magnetic field might be sufficiently intense to be detected by spectroscopic observations.
A sun-spot, as seen with a telescope or photographed in the ordinary way, docs not appear to be a vortex. If we examine the solar atmosphere above and about the spots, we find extensive clouds of luminous calcium vapor, invisible to the eye, but easily photographed with the
Fig. 6. Calcium (H2) Flocculi photographed with the Spectroheliograph, April 30, 1908.
spectroheliograph, by admitting no light to the sensitive plate except that radiated by calcium vapor. These calcium flocculi (Fig. 6), like the cumulus clouds of the earth's atmosphere, exhibit no well-defined linear structure. But if we photograph the sun with the red light of hydrogen, we find a very different condition of affairs (Fig. 7). In this higher region of the solar atmosphere, first photographed on Mount Wilson in 1908, cyclonic whirls, centering in sun-spots, are clearly shown.
The idea that sun-spots may be solar tornadoes, which was strongly
Fig. 7. Hydrogen (Hα) Flocculi photographed with the Spectroheliograph, April 30, 1908.
suggested by such photographs, soon received striking confirmation. A great cloud of hydrogen, which had hung for several days on the edge of one of these vortex structures, was suddenly swept into the spot at a velocity of about 60 miles per second. More recently Slocum has photographed at the Yerkes Observatory a prominence at the edge of the sun, flowing into a spot with a somewhat lower velocity.
Thus we were led to the hypothesis that sun-spots are closely analogous to tornadoes or water-spouts in the earth's atmosphere (Fig. 8).
If this were true, electrons, caught and whirled in the spot vortex, should produce a magnetic field. Fortunately, this could be put to a conclusive test, through the well-known influence of magnetism on light discovered by Zeeman in 1896.
In Zeeman's experiment a flame containing sodium vapor was placed between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet. The two yellow sodium lines, observed with a spectroscope of high dispersion, were seen to widen the instant a magnetic field was produced by passing a current through the coils of the magnet. It was subsequently found that most of the lines of the spectrum, which are single under ordinary conditions, are split into three components when the radiating source is in a sufficiently intense magnetic field. This is the case when the observation is made at right angles to the lines of force. When looking along the lines of force, the central line of such a triplet disappears (Fig. 9), and the light of the two side components is found to be circularly polarized in opposite
Fig. 9. Zeeman Doublet photographed in Laboratory Spectrum. The middle section shows the doublet. The adjacent sections indicate the appearance of the spectrum line in the absence of a magnetic field.
directions. With suitable polarizing apparatus, either component of such a line can be cut off at will, leaving the other unchanged. Furthermore, a double line having these characteristic properties can be produced only by a magnetic field. Thus it becomes a simple matter to detect a magnetic field, at any distance, by observing its effect on light emitted within the field. If a sun-spot is an electric vortex, and the observer is supposed to look along the axis of the whirling vapor, which would correspond with the direction of the lines of force, he should find the spectrum lines double, and be able to cut off either component with the polarizing attachment of his spectroscope.
I applied this test to sun-spots on Mount Wilson in June, 1908, with the 60-foot tower telescope, and at once found all of the characteristic features of the Zeeman effect. Most of the lines of the sunspot spectrum are merely widened by the magnetic field, but others are split into separate components (Fig. 10), which can be cut off at will by the observer. Moreover, the opportune formation of two large spots, which appeared on the spectroheliograph plates to be rotating in opposite directions (Fig. 11), permitted a still more exacting experiment to be tried. In the laboratory, where the polarizing apparatus is so adjusted as to transmit one component of a line doubled by a magnetic field, this disappears and is replaced by the other component when the direction of the current is reversed. In other words, one component is visible alone when the observer looks toward the north pole of the magnet, while the other appears alone when he looks toward the south pole. If electrons of the same kind are rotating in opposite directions in two sun-spot vortices, the observer should be looking toward a north pole in one spot and toward a south pole in the other. Hence the
Fig. 10. a, b, spectra of two sun-spots. The triple line indicates a magnetic field of 4,500 gausses in a, and one of 2,000 gausses in b.
opposite components of a magnetic double line should appear in two such spots. As our photographs show, the result of the test was in harmony with my anticipation.
I may not pause to describe the later developments of this investigation, though two or three points must be mentioned. The intensity of the magnetic field in sun-spots is sometimes as high as 4,500 gausses, or nine thousand times the intensity of the earth's field. In passing upward from the sun's surface, the magnetic intensity decreases very
Fig. 11. Right- and Left handed Vortices surrounding Sun-spots indicated by the distribution of hydrogen (Hα) gas. photographed with the spectroheliograph.
rapidly—so rapidly, in fact, as to suggest the existence of an opposing field. It is probable that the vortex which produces the observed field is not the one that appears on our photograph, but lies at a lower level. In fact, the vortex structure shown on spectroheliograph plates may represent the effect, rather than the cause of the sun-spot field. We may have, as Brester and Deslandres suggest, a condition analogous to that illustrated in the aurora: electrons, falling in the solar atmosphere, move along the lines of force of the magnetic field into spots. In this way we may perhaps account for the structure surrounding pairs of spots, of opposite polarity, which constitute the typical sun-spot group. The resemblance of the structure near these two bipolar groups to the lines of force about a bar magnet is very striking, especially when the disturbed condition of the solar atmosphere, which tends to mask the effect, is borne in mind. It is not unlikely that the bipolar group is due to a single vortex, of the horse-shoe type, such as we may see in water after every sweep of an oar.
We thus have abundant evidence of the existence on the sun of local magnetic fields of great intensity—fields so extensive that the earth is small in comparison with many of them. But how may we account for the copious supply of electrons needed to generate the powerful currents required in such enormous electro-magnets? Neutral molecules, postulated in theories of the earth's field, will not suffice. A marked preponderance of electrons of one sign is clearly indicated.
An interesting experiment, due to Harker, will help us here. Imagine a pair of carbon rods, insulated within a furnace heated to a temperature of two or three thousand degrees. The outer ends of the rods, projecting from the furnace, are connected to a galvanometer. Harker found that when one of the carbon terminals within the furnace was cooler than the other, a stream of negative electrons flowed toward it from the hotter electrode. Even at atmospheric pressure, currents of several amperes were produced in this way.[3]
Our spectroscopic investigations, interpreted by laboratory experiments, are in harmony with those of Fowler in proving that sun-spots are comparatively cool regions in the solar atmosphere. They are hot enough, it is true, to volatilize such refractory elements as titanium, but cool enough to permit the formation of certain compounds not found elsewhere in the sun. Hence, from Harker's experiment, we may expect a flow of negative electrons toward spots. These, caught and whirled in the vortex, would easily account for the observed magnetic fields.
The conditions existing in sun-spots are thus without any close parallel among the natural phenomena of the earth. The sun-spot vortex is not unlike a terrestrial tornado, on a vast scale, but if the whirl of ions in a tornado produces a magnetic field, it is too feeble to be readily detected. Thus, while we have demonstrated the existence of solar magnetism, it is confined to limited areas. We must look further if we would throw new light on the theory of the magnetic properties of rotating bodies.
This leads us to the question with which we started: is the sun a magnet like the earth? The structure of the corona, as revealed at total eclipses, points strongly in this direction. Remembering the lines of force of our magnetized steel sphere, we can not fail to be struck by their close resemblance to the polar streamers in these beautiful photographs of the corona (Fig. 12) taken by Lick Observatory eclipse parties, for which
I am indebted to Professor Campbell. Bigelow, in 1889, investigated this coronal structure, and showed that it is very similar to the lines of force of a spherical magnet. Störmer, guided by his own researches on the aurora, has calculated the trajectories of electrons moving out from the sun under the influence of a general magnetic field, and compared these trajectories with the coronal streamers. The resemblance is apparently too close to be the result of chance. Finally, Deslandres has investigated the forms and motions of solar prominences, which he finds to behave as they would in a magnetic field of intensity about one millionth that of the earth. We may thus infer the existence of a general solar magnetic field. But since the sign of the charge of the outflowing electrons is not certainly known, we can not determine the polarity of the sun in this way. Furthermore, our present uncertainty
as to the proportion at different levels of positive and negative electrons, and of the perturbations due to currents in the solar atmosphere, must delay the most effective application of these methods, though they promise much future knowledge of the magnetic field at high levels in the solar atmosphere.
Of the field at low levels, however, they may tell us little or nothing, for the distribution of the electrons may easily be such as to give rise to a field caused by the rotation of the solar atmosphere, which may oppose in sign the field due to the rotation of the body of the sun. To detect this latter field, the magnetic field of the sun as distinguished from that of the sun's atmosphere, we must resort to the method employed in the case of sun-spots—the study of the Zeeman effect. If
this is successful, it will not only show beyond doubt whether the sun is a magnet: it will also permit the polarity of the sun to be compared with that of the earth, give a measure of the strength of the field at different latitudes, and indicate the sign of the charge that a rotating sphere must possess if it is to produce a similar field.
I first endeavored to apply this test with the 60-foot tower telescope in 1908, but the results were too uncertain to command confidence.
Thanks to additional appropriations from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, a new and powerful instrument was available on Mount Wilson for a continuation of the investigation in January, 1912. The new tower telescope has a focal length of 150 feet (Fig. 13). To prevent vibration in the wind, the cœlostat, second mirror and object-glass are carried by a skeleton tower, each vertical and diagonal member of which is enclosed within the corresponding member of an outer skeleton tower, which also carries a dome to shield the instruments from the weather. In the photograph, we see only the hollow members of the outer tower. But within each of them, well separated from possible contact, a sectional view would show the similar, but more slender members of the tower that supports the instruments. The plan has proved to be successful, permitting observations demanding the greatest steadiness of the solar image to be made.
The arrangements are similar to those of the 60-foot tower. The solar image, 1612inches in diameter, falls on the slit of a spectrograph (Fig. 14) in the observation house at the ground level. The spectrograph, of 75 feet focal length, enjoys the advantage of great stability and constancy of temperature in its subterranean vault beneath the tower. In the third order spectrum, used for this investigation, the D lines of the solar spectrum are 29 millimeters apart. The resolving power of the excellent Michelson grating is sufficient to show 75 lines of the iodine absorption spectrum in this space between the D's. Thus the instruments are well suited for the exacting requirements of a difficult investigation. For it must be borne in mind that the problem is very different from that of detecting the magnetic fields in sun-spots, where the separation of the lines is from fifty to one hundred times as great as we may expect to find here. Thus the sun's general field can produce no actual separation of the lines. But it may cause a very slight widening, which should appear as a displacement when suitable polarizing apparatus is used. This is so arranged as to divide the spectrum longitudinally into narrow strips. The component toward the red end of the spectrum of a line widened by magnetism should appear in one strip, the other component in the next strip. Hence, if the sun has a magnetic field of sufficient strength, the line should have a dentated appearance. The small relative displacements of the lines on successive strips, when measured under a microscope, should give the strength of the magnetic field.
The above remarks apply strictly to the case when the observer is looking directly along the lines of force. At other angles neither component is completely cut off, and the magnitude of the displacement will then depend upon two things: the strength of the magnetic field and the angle between the line of sight and the lines of force. Assuming that the lines of force of the sun correspond with those of a magnetized sphere, and also that the magnetic poles coincide with the poles of rotation, it is possible to calculate what the relative displacement should be at different solar latitudes. These theoretical displacements are shown graphically by the sine curve on the screen (Fig. 15).
We see from the curve that the greatest displacements should be found at 45° north and south latitude, and that from these points they should decrease toward zero at the equator and the poles. Furthermore, the curve shows that we may apply the same crucial test used in the case of sun-spots: the direction of the displacements, toward red or violet, should be reversed in the northern and southern hemispheres.
I shall not trouble you with the details of the hundreds of photographs and the thousands of measures which have been made by my colleagues and myself during the past year. In view of the diffuse character of the solar lines under such high dispersion, and the exceedingly small displacements observed, the results must be given with some reserve, though they appear to leave no doubt as to the reality of the effect. Observations in the second order spectrum failed to give satisfactory indications of the field. But with the higher dispersion of the third order eleven independent determinations, made with every possible precaution to eliminate bias, show opposite displacements in
the northern and southern hemispheres, decreasing in magnitude from about 45° north and south latitude to the equator. Three of these determinations were pushed as close to the poles as conditions would permit, and the observed displacements may be compared with the theoretical curve (Fig. 15). In view of the very small magnitude of the displacements, which never surpass 0.002 Angströms, the agreement is quite as satisfactory as one could expect for a first approximation.
The full details of the investigation are given in a paper recently published.[4] The reader will find an account of the precautions taken to eliminate error, and, I trust, no tendency to underestimate the possible adverse bearing of certain negative results. It must remain for the future to confirm or to overthrow the apparently strong evidence in favor of the existence of a true Zeeman effect, due to the general magnetic field of the sun. If this evidence can be accepted, we may draw certain conclusions of present interest.
Taking the measures at their face value, they indicate that the north magnetic pole of the sun lies at or near the north pole of rotation, while the south magnetic pole lies at or near the south pole of rotation. In other words, if a compass needle could withstand the solar temperature, it would point approximately as it does on the earth, since the polarity of the two bodies appears to be the same. Thus, since the earth and sun rotate in the same direction, a negative charge distributed through their mass would account in each case for the observed magnetic polarity.
As for the strength of the sun's field, only three preliminary determinations have yet been made, with as many different lines. Disregarding the systematic error of measurement, which is still very uncertain, these indicate that the field-strength at the sun's poles is of the order of 50 gausses (about eighty times that of the earth).
Schuster, assuming the magnetic fields of the earth and sun to be due to their rotation, found that the strength of the sun's field should be 440 times that of the earth, or 264 gausses. This was on the supposition that the field-strength of a rotating body is proportional to the product of the radius and the maximum linear velocity of rotation, but neglected the density. Before inquiring why the observed and theoretical values differ, we may glance at the two most promising hypotheses that have been advanced in support of the view that every large rotating body is a magnet.
On account of their greater mass, the positive electrons of the neutral molecules within the earth may perhaps be more powerfully attracted by gravitation than the negative electrons. In this case the negative charge of each molecule should be a little farther from the center of the earth than the positive charge. The average linear velocity of the negative charge would thus be a little greater, and the magnetizing effect due to its motion would slightly exceed that due to the motion of the positive charge. By assuming a separation of the charges equal to about four tenths the radius of a molecule (Bauer), the symmetrical part of the earth's magnetic field could be accounted for as the result of the axial rotation.
This theory, first suggested by Thomson, has been developed by Sutherland, Schuster and Bauer. But as yet it has yielded no explanation of the secular variation of the earth's magnetism, and other important objections have been urged against it. While it should not be rejected, the merits of other theories must not be overlooked.
Chief among these is the theory that rests on the very probable assumption that every molecule is a magnet. If the magnetism is accounted for as the effect of the rapid revolution of electrons within the molecule, a gyrostatic action might be anticipated. That is, each molecule would tend to set itself with its axis parallel to the axis of the earth, just as the gyrostatic compass, now coming into use at sea, tends to point to the geographical pole. The host of molecular magnets, all acting together, might account for the earth's magnetic field.
This theory, in its turn, is not free from obvious points of weakness, though they may disappear as the result of more extended investigation. Its chief advantage lies in the possibility that it may explain the secular variation of the earth's magnetism by a precessional motion of the magnetic molecules.
On either hypothesis, it is assumed, in the absence of knowledge to the contrary, that every molecule contributes to the production of the magnetic field. Thus the density of the rotating body may prove to be a factor. Perhaps the change of density from the surface to the center of the sun must also be taken into account. But the observational results already obtained suggest that the phenomena of ionization in the solar atmosphere may turn out to be the predominant influence.
The lines which show the Zeeman effect originate at a comparatively low level in the solar atmosphere. Preliminary measures indicate that certain lines of titanium, which are widely separated by a magnetic field in the laboratory, are not appreciably affected in the sun. As these lines represent a somewhat higher level, it is probable that the strength of the sun's field decreases very rapidly in passing upward from the surface of the photosphere—a conclusion in harmony with results obtained from the study of the corona and prominences. Thus it may be found that the distribution of the electrons is such as to give rise to the observed field or to produce a field opposing that caused by the rotation of the body of the sun. It is evident that speculation along these lines may advantageously await the accumulation of observations covering a wide range of level. Beneath the photosphere, where the pressure is high, we may conclude from recent electric furnace experiments by King that free electrons, though relatively few, may nevertheless play some part in the production of the general magnetic field.
In this survey of magnetic phenomena, we have kept constantly in mind the hypothesis that the magnetism of the earth is due to its rotation. Permanent magnets, formerly supposed to account for the earth's magnetic field, could not exist at the high temperature of the sun. Displays of the aurora, usually accompanied by magnetic storms, are plausibly attributed to electrons reaching the earth from the sun, and illuminating the rare gases of the upper atmosphere just as they affect those in a vacuum tube. Definite proof of the existence of free electrons in the sun is afforded by the discovery of powerful local magnetic fields in sun-spots, where the magnetic intensity is sometimes as great as nine thousand times that of the earth's field. These local fields probably result from the rapid revolution in a vortex of negative electrons, flowing toward the cooler spot from the hotter region outside. The same method of observation now indicates that the whole sun is a magnet, of the same polarity as the earth. Because of the high solar temperature, this magnetism may be ascribed to the sun's axial rotation.[5] It is not improbable that the earth's magnetism also results from its rotation, and that other rotating celestial bodies, such as stars and nebulæ, may ultimately be found to possess magnetic properties. Thus, while the presence of free electrons in the sun prevents our acceptance of the evidence as a proof that every large rotating body is a magnet, the results of the investigation are not opposed to this hypothesis, which may be tested further by the study of other stars of known diameter and velocity of rotation.
- ↑ Address delivered upon the occasion of the semi-centennial anniversary of the foundation of the National Academy of Sciences, April 22, 1913.
- ↑ Figs. 4, 6 and 7 represent the same region of the sun, photographed at successively higher levels.
- ↑ King has recently found that the current decreases very rapidly as the pressure increases, but is still appreciable at a pressure of 20 atmospheres.
- ↑ Contributions from the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, No. 71.
- ↑ The alternative hypothesis, that the sun's magnetism is due to the combined effect of numberless local magnetic fields, caused by electric vortices in the solar "pores," though at first sight improbable, deserves further consideration.