Astronomers Find Temperatures Drop In Sun and Why Planet Eros Is Erratic

Memorial Day holidays and long weekends meant nothing to star gazers at the Observatory, for two important discoveries were announced there within the last two days.

On Sunday it was learned that there was a 1500 degrees temperature drop between the surface of the sun and its outlying atmosphere, while today brought the tidings that the planet Eros is really in the shape of a huge brick, rather than possessing an ordinary spherical shape. Fletcher Watson, research fellow at the Observatory, was responsible for this latter discovery.

Watson, whose findings are reported in the astronomy magazine "Telescope" further believes that Eros whirls about end over end, sometimes showing the earth a large side and then turning its other cheek and displaying a small end. This accounts for its erratic changes of light which have long baffled astronomers.

Since 1898 when it was first discovered, Eros has attracted unusual attention both because of its fickle brightness and because it is one of the earth's nearest neighbors. A cold splinter of rock, estimated to be about 22 miles long and 7 miles thick, Eros sometimes comes within 14,000,000 miles of the earth.

The discovery about the drop in temperature between the surface and outlying atmosphere of the sun, was made in wholly accidental fashion, it was reported by Donald H. Menzel, associate professor of Astrophysics, who with others, was responsible for the work.

The temperature of the sun's atmosphere has been placed now at about 4500 degrees Centigrade, while the surface, where the sunlight originates, has a solar radiation to which astronomers have given a value of about 6000 degrees Centigrade.

The experiments here began several years ago with calculations by Leo Goldberg, Bemis Fellow of the Observatory, of the theoretical "strengths" of related lines in the spectra of various elements. Following this, Menzel extended the quantitative theory of absorption line formation.