Disturbing Sun, Page 3

from one to fifteen meters, which sofar is the upper limit of the observations. In a few instances, however,intense bursts have also been detected down to fifty cm.

  LATHAM. I believe you said the periods of mental disturbance last forabout ten or twelve days. How does that tie-in with the S-Regions?

  NIEMAND. Very closely. You see it takes about twelve days for anS-Region to pass across the face of the Sun, since the synodic rotationis twenty-seven point three days.

  LATHAM. I should think it would be nearer thirteen or fourteen days.

  NIEMAND. Apparently an S-Region is not particularly effective when it isjust coming on or just going off the disk of the Sun.

  LATHAM. Are the S-Regions associated with sunspots?

  NIEMAND. They are connected in this way: that sunspot activity andS-Region activity certainly go together. The more sunspots the moreviolent and intense is the S-Region activity. But there is not aone-to-one correspondence between sunspots and S-Regions. That is, youcannot connect a particular sunspot group with a particular S-Region.The same thing is true of sunspots and magnetic storms.

  LATHAM. How do you account for this?

  NIEMAND. We don't account for it.

  * * * * *

  LATHAM. What other properties of the S-Regions have you discovered?

  NIEMAND. Middletown says that the radio waves emanating from them arestrongly circularly polarized. Moreover, the sense of rotation remainsconstant while one is passing across the Sun. If the magnetic fieldassociated with an S-Region extends into the high solar corona throughwhich the rays pass, then the sense of rotation corresponds to theordinary ray of the magneto-ionic theory.

  LATHAM. Does this mean that the mental disturbances arise from some formof electromagnetic radiation?

  NIEMAND. We doubt it. As I said before, the charts show a lag of aboutforty-eight hours between the development of an S-Region and the onsetof mental disturbance. This indicates that the malignant energyemanating from an S-Region consists of some highly penetrating form ofcorpuscular radiation, as yet unidentified.[A]

  [Footnote A: Middletown believes that the Intense radiation recentlydiscovered from information derived from Explorer I and III has noconnection with the corpuscular S-radiation.]

  LATHAM. A question that puzzles me is why some people are affected bythe S-Regions while others are not.

  NIEMAND. Our latest results indicate that probably _no one_ iscompletely immune. All are affected in _some_ degree. Just why someshould be affected so much more than others is still a matter ofspeculation.

  LATHAM. How long does an S-Region last?

  NIEMAND. An S-Region may have a lifetime of from three to perhaps adozen solar rotations. Then it dies out and for a time we are free fromthis malignant radiation. Then a new region develops in perhaps anentirely different region of the Sun. Sometimes there may be severaldifferent S-Regions all going at once.

  LATHAM. Why were not the S-Regions discovered long ago?

  NIEMAND. Because the radio exploration of the Sun only began since theend of World War II.

  LATHAM. How does it happen that you only got patients suffering fromS-radiation since about 1955?

  NIEMAND. I think we did get such patients previously but not in largeenough numbers to attract attention. Also the present sunspot cyclestarted its rise to maximum about 1954.

  LATHAM. Is there no way of escaping the S-radiation?

  NIEMAND. I'm afraid the only sure way is to keep on the unilluminatedside of the Earth which is rather difficult to do. Apparently thecorpuscular beam from an S-Region is several degrees wide and not verysharply defined, since its effects are felt simultaneously over theentire continent. Hillyard and Middletown are working on some form ofshielding device but so far without success.

  LATHAM. What is the present state of S-Region activity?

  NIEMAND. At the present moment there happens to be no S-Region activityon the Sun. But a new one may develop at any time. Also, the outlook fora decrease in activity is not very favorable. Sunspot activity continuesat a high level and is steadily mounting in violence. The last sunspotcycle had the highest maximum of any since 1780, but the present cyclebids fair to set an all time record.

  LATHAM. And so you believe that the S-Regions are the cause of most ofthe present trouble in the world. That it is not ourselves but somethingoutside ourselves--

  NIEMAND. That is the logical outcome of our investigation. We arecontrolled and swayed by forces which in many cases we are powerless toresist.

  LATHAM. Could we not be warned of the presence of an S-Region?

  NIEMAND. The trouble is they seem to develop at random on the Sun. I'mafraid any warning system would be worse than useless. We would becrying WOLF! all the time.

  LATHAM. How may a person who is not particularly susceptible to thismalignant radiation know that one of these regions is active?

  NIEMAND. If you have a feeling of restlessness and anxiety, if you areunable to concentrate, if you feel suddenly depressed and discouragedabout yourself, or are filled with resentment toward the world, then youmay be pretty sure that an S-Region is passing across the face of theSun. Keep a tight rein on yourself. For it seems that evil will alwaysbe with us ... as long as the Sun shall continue to shine upon thislittle world.

  THE END