Father Of Global Warming Believed That Auroras Were Formed By Solar Dust

2 Responses to Father Of Global Warming Believed That Auroras Were Formed By Solar Dust

1. Mike Davis says:

   August 15, 2011 at 6:33 pm

   WOW! He could have given Vern a run for the money. Or maybe he read a lot of Vern’s work!

   Reply
2. Blade says:

   August 16, 2011 at 3:50 pm

   The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW) Saturday 26 September 1908

   COSMIC DUST.

   It is a common idea that space is empty, but for the large masses known as suns and stars separated from each other by immense distances. Cosmic bodies, however, exist, both bright and dark, of all orders of magnitude down to the larger and smaller meteors that penetrate our system, and shower down continually on both earth and sun. Space, moreover, is thickly strewn with cosmic dust, expelled by the violence of reactions going on in incandescent stars, of which our sun is one. This dust is gathered up in the higher portions of our atmosphere, and as Arrhenius has pointed out, it then may account for many important phenomena. The enormous volume of dust particles poured forth by the sun carries with it solar gases that condense on their surfaces. It has been suggested that it is in this way that the traces of hydrogen in our atmosphere reach it. The amount of such dust reaching us is probably very variable, and a rather distinct parallelism is said to have been made out between sunspot maxima and its maximum occurrences. When the air is rich in dust the conditions are favourable for cloud formation. Auroral lights regularly give rise to a characteristic sort of clouds. Klein compiled a table on this connection between the frequency of the higher clouds at Cologne and sunspots, and demonstrated that for over half a century the maxima and minima of the two phenomena were in agreement. A similar relation is said to hold of Jupiter’s clouds. Streamer lights are said to strictly conform to the 11.1 period, but this is said not to be the case with the auroras of Iceland and Greenland, Arrhenius regards both forms as arising from solar dust projected into the higher reaches of the atmosphere, and he has given elaborate explanations of their appearances based on this hypothesis. Closely akin in cause are variations in terrestrial magnetism. The gas krypton is characteristically present in the polar lights, and Arrhenius suggests that this also is brought by the cosmic dust from the sun. The Zodiacal light seen in the tropics at sunset or sunrise receives a similar explanation. The glow is due to dust particles illuminated by the sun. Cosmic dust no doubt plays an important part in stellar evolution. Heated by radiation falling upon them, these minute particles travel to distant portions of space, and, becoming trapped in gaseous nebulae form the beginnings of a new universe.

   Reply