bodies in the universe are composed of the same substance the earth is.

The sun is subject to terrific hurricanes and cyclones, as well as
explosions, casting up jets to the height of 200,000 miles. In the early
days of spectroscopy these protuberances could only be seen at a time
of a total solar ellipse, and astronomers made long journeys to distant
parts of the earth to be in line of totality. Now all is changed. Images
of the sun are thrown into the observatory by an ingenious instrument
run by clockwork, and called a heliostat. This is set on the sun at such
an angle as to throw the solar image into the objective of the telescope
placed horizontally in a darkened observatory, and the pendulum ball set
in motion, when it will follow the sun without moving its image, all day
if desired. At the eye end of the telescope is attached the spectroscope
and the micrometer, and the whole set of instruments so adjusted that
just the edge of the sun is seen, making a half spectrum. The other half
of the spectroscope projects above the solar limb, and is dark, so if an
explosion throws up liquid jets, or flames of hydrogen, the astronomer
at once sees them and with the micrometer measures their height before
they have time to fall. And the spectrum at once tells what the jets are
composed of, whether hydrogen, gaseous iron, calcium, or anything else.
Prof. C. A. Young saw a jet of hydrogen ascend a distance of 200,000
miles, measured its height, noted its spectrum and timed its ascent by
a chronometer all at once, and was astonished to find the velocity one
hundred and sixty miles per second--eight times faster than the earth
flies on its orbit. By these improvements solar hurricanes, whirlpools,
and explosions can be seen from any physical observatory on clear days.

The slit of the spectroscope can be moved anywhere on the disk of the
sun; so that if the observer sees a tornado begin, he moves the slit
along with it, measures the length of its tract and velocity. With the