%0 Journal Article
%T On the Theory of Sunspots Proposed by Signor Kirchoff
%A Secchi A.
%J Progress in Physics
%D 2011
%I HEXIS (Arizona)
%X Eileen Reeves (Department of Comparative Literature, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08544) and Mary Posani (Department of French and Italian, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43221) provide a translation of Father Pietro Angelo Secchi¡¯s classic work ¡°Secchi A. Sulla Teoria Delle Macchie Solari: Proposta dal sig. Kircho ¡± as it appeared in Bullettino Meteorologico dell¡¯ Osservatorio del Collegio Romano, 31 January 1864, v.3(4), 1¨C 4. This was the  rst treatise to propose a particulate photosphere  oating on the gaseous body of the Sun. The idea would dominateastrophysical thought for the next 50 years. Secchi appears to have drafted the article, as a response to Gustav Kirchho¡¯s proposal, echoing early Galilean ideas, that sunspots represented clouds which  oated above the photosphere. Other than presenting a newsolar model, noteworthy aspects of this work include Secchi¡¯s appropriate insistence that materials do not emit the same light at the same temperature and his gentle rebuke of Kirchho relative to commenting on questions of astronomy.
%K photosphere
%K Sun
%K sunspots
%K gaseous body
%U http://www.ptep-online.com/index_files/2011/PP-26-02.PDF