From the fact that atoms are compound bodies
made up of corpuscles at least a thousand times smaller than the
smallest known atom -- a fact which astounded most men of science when
it was announced a few years ago -- a new hypothesis has been
developed concerning the nature of the Zodiacal Light (as well as
other astronomical riddles), and this hypothesis comes not from an
astronomer, but from a chemist and physicist, the Swede, Svante
Arrhenius. In considering an outline of this new hypothesis we need
neither accept nor reject it; it is a case rather for suspension of
judgment.
To begin with, it carries us back to the ``pressure of light''
mentioned in the preceding chapter. The manner in which this pressure
is believed generally to act was there sufficiently explained, and it
only remains to see how it is theoretically extended to the particles
of matter supposed to constitute the Zodiacal Light. We know that
corpuscles, or ``fragments of atoms'' negatively electrified, are
discharged from hot bodies. Streams of these ``ions'' pour from many
flames and from molten metals; and the impact of the cathode and
ultra-violet rays causes them to gush even from cold bodies. In the
vast laboratory of the sun it is but reasonable to suppose that
similar processes are taking place.
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