Stars

and Atoms

Oxford University Press

London
Edinburgh
Calcutta

Glasgow

Copenhagen

New York
Bombay

Toronto Melbourne Capetown

Madras

Shanghai

Humphrey

Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY

Fie.

i.

THE

SUN.

Hydrogen photograph

Stars
A.

and Atoms
S.

EDDINGTON

M.A., D.Sc., LL.D., F.R S., Flumian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Cambridge

OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1927

Ich.

haufe ungeheure Zahlen,

Gebiirge Millionen auf,

Ich setze Zeit auf Zeit und Welt auf Welt zu Hauf.

A. VON HALLER.

PREFACE
of an Evening Discourse given at the meeting of the British Association In adapting it for publication in Oxford in August 1926.
title

and Atoms

'

was the

STARS

the restrictions of a time limit are removed)

ingly
it

and accord-

appears in this book as three lectures. Earlier in the year I had given a course of three lectures in King's on the same topics ; these have been College, London,

combined with the Oxford lecture and are the origin of most of the additions.

full

account of the subject, including the matheis

matical theory,

given in

my

larger book, The Internal

Constitution of the Stars

I

only aim

at exposition of

(Camb. Univ. Press, 1926). Here some of the leading ideas and
knowledge of atoms and radiation
;

results.

The advance
has led to

in our

astronomy and reciprocally the study of matter in the extreme conditions prevailing in stars and nebulae has played no mean
part in the progress of atomic physics. This theme of the lectures. Selection has been
is

many

interesting developments in

the general

made of

the

advances and discoveries which admit of comparatively elementary exposition ; but it is often necessary to detnand

from the reader a concentration of thought which, it is hoped, will be repaid by the fascination of the subject.

The

treatment was meant to be discursive rather than

;

but habits of mind refuse to be suppressed In entirely and a certain amount of system has crept in. these problems where our thought fluctuates continually
systematic

from the excessively great to the excessively small, from the star to the atom and back to the star, the story of

6
progress the telling,
is

^Preface
rich in variety
it
;

if it

has not lost too

much

in

should convey in full measure the delights and the troubles of scientific investigation in all its
phases.

Temperatures are expressed throughout in degrees The English billion, trillion, &c. Centigrade. io l8 &c.) are used. A. S. E.
,

CONTENTS
LECTURE
I.

THE INTERIOR OF A STAR

in the Interior
.

Temperature
lonization of

.11
17
.

Atoms
Mass

Radiation Pressure and

24
26
28
31

The The

Interior of a Star

Opacity of Stellar Matter

Relation of Brightness to
Stars

Mass

Dense

36

LECTURE

II.

SOME RECENT INVESTIGATIONS

. ,

42

The

Story of Algol
Story of the Companion of Sirius

42
48
53
59

The

Unknown Atoms and

Spectral Series

Interpretation of Spectra
.

The Cloud

in Space

63
70

The
The
LECTURE

Sun's Chromosphere Story of Betelgeuse

.76
.

III.

THE AGE OF THE STARS

,

85 85

Pulsating Stars

The The

Cepheid

as a

Standard Candle

'

.90
.
.

Contraction Hypothesis

94.

Subatomic Energy
Evolution of the Stars
Radiation of

oo

.106

Mass

-in

APPENDIX
Further Remarks on the Companion of Sirius
.

122

LIST
FIG.
1.

OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The

Sun.
(J.

Hydrogen Spectroheliogram.
.
.

Evershed)

Frontispiece

2.

Solar Vortices.

Hydrogen Spectroheliogram.
.

(Mount Wilson Observatory)

3.

To face page 10

Tracks of Alpha
(C.

Particles

(helium atoms).
.
.

T. R. Wilson)
Particles

18

4.

Tracks of Beta
(C.

(electrons).
.
.

T. R. Wilson)
(C.

18

5.

lonization by X-rays.

T. R. Wilson)

24

6.

Ions produced by Collision of a Beta particle

(C.

T. R* Wilson)
.

24
page 33

7.

The

Mass-luminosity Curve
in

8.

The Ring Nebula

gram.

Lyra.

Slitless

Spectro.

(W.H.Wright)

To face page $4

9.

Flash Spectrum of Chromosphere showing

Head of

the Balmer Series*

(British
.

Eclipse Expedition, 14 Jan. 1926)

10. Solar Prominence.
tion,

54

(British Eclipse Expedi-

29
a)

May

1919)

70

11. Star Cluster

Centauri. (Cape Observatory)

70

LECTURE

THE INTERIOR OF A STAR

sun belongs to a system containing some 3,000
JL

million stars.

The
is

stars are globes

comparable

in

size

with the sun, that

to say, of the order of a million

miles in diameter.
is

The

space for their accommodation

on the most lavish

scale.

Imagine

thirty cricket balls

roaming the whole interior of the earth ; the stars roaming the heavens are just as little crowded and run as little
risk of collision as the cricket balls.

We

marvel at the

grandeur of the stellar system. But this probably is not Evidence is growing that the spiral nebulae the limit.
*

are

island universes

may

system. It well be that our survey covers only one unit of a

outside our

own

stellar

vaster organization.

drop of water contains several thousand million million million atoms. Each atom is about one hundredmillionth of an inch in diameter.

Here we marvel

at the

limit.

minute delicacy of the workmanship. But this is not the Within the atom are the much smaller electrons
pursuing orbits, like planets round the sun, in a space which relatively to their size is no less roomy than the
solar system.

Nearly midway in scale between the atom and the star the human there is another structure no less marvellous
body.
star.

Man

is

slightly nearer to the

atom than

to the

About io7 atoms build

his

body;

about io* 8

human bodies constitute enough material to build a star. From his central position man can survey the grandest
works of Nature with the astronomer, or the minutest works with the physicist. To-night I ask you to look
3308

io
both ways.

The
;

Interior of a Star

For the road to a knowledge of the stars leads through the atom and important knowledge of the atom has been reached through the stars.

The star most familiar to us is the sun.

speaking,
it is

close at hand.

We

Astronomically can measure its size,

weigh

it,

take

its

temperature, and so on, more easily than

the other stars.

We can take photographs of its surface,

stars are so distant that the largest tele-

whereas the other

scope in the

world does not magnify them into anything more than points of light. Figs, i and 2 * show recent

No doubt the stars in pictures of the sun's surface. similar features if they were near show would general
enough to be examined. I must first explain that these
are not the ordinary show very well the photographs. Simple photographs dark blotches called sunspots, but otherwise they are
flat

The pictures here shown a were taken with spectro-heliograph, an instrument which looks out for light of just one variety (wave-length) and
rather

and uninteresting.

ignores all the rest. The ultimate effect of this selection is that the instrument sorts out the different levels in the
sun's atmosphere and shows what is going on at one level, instead of giving a single blurred impression of all levels superposed. Fig. 2, which refers to a high level, gives a wonderful picture of whirlwinds and commotion. I

think that the solar meteorologists would be likely to describe these vortices in terms not unfamiliar to us
*

A deep depression with secondaries

is
1

is

approaching, and

a renewal of unsettled conditions

probable.'
at

However
Kodaikanal

Fig. i is from a photograph taken by Observatory, Madras. Fig. 2 is from the

California.

Mr. Evershed

Mount Wilson

Observatory,

\-'''i;^V;;^^'*HB^\ii^

lliSilfitfi >^^ *lw$r$$fa

:

$-.v

**

;?;S

?':^||^^^^^
FIG. 2.

THE

SUN.

Hydrogen photograph

Temperature
that

the Interior

may
;

be, there

is

always one safe weather fore

the sun
very

cyclone or anticyclone, the temperature

about 6,000 in fact. But just now I do not wish to linger over the surface of the sun. A great many new and layers or atmosphere
interesting discoveries

warm

have recently been made in

'.

this

region,
to

and much
subject of

of the
'

my

new knowledge is very germane Stars and Atoms But personally

I am more at home underneath the surface, and I am in Therefore with this brief glance a hurry to dive below.

at the

scenery that

we

pass

we

shall

plunge into the

deep
it is

interior

where the eye cannot penetrate, but where

yet possible by scientific reasoning to learn a great deal about the conditions

Temperature in the Interior

By mathematical methods
and how
fast the

it is

possible to

work out how

into the sun,

fast the pressure increases as

we go down

temperature must increase to withstand

the pressure. The architect can work out the stresses inside the piers of his building ; he does not need to bore
holes in them.

Likewise the astronomer can work out the

sun without boring

stress or pressure at points inside the

a hole.

more surprising that the temperature Perhaps can be found by pure calculation. It is natural that you
it is

should

feel rather sceptical

about our claim that we

know
!

it is in the very middle of a star and you may more sceptical when I divulge the actual figures Therefore I had better describe the method as far as I can. I shall not attempt to go into detail, but I hope to show you that there is a clue which might be followed up by

how
be

hot

still

appropriate mathematical methods. I must premise that the heat of a gas

is

chiefly the

12

The
and tending
its
is

Interior of
its

a Star

energy of motion of
tions

to scatter apart.

particles hastening in all direcIt is this which gives

;

a gas a gas

elasticity or

expansive force
to every

the elasticity of

one through its practical application in a pneumatic tyre. Now imagine yourself at some point deep down in the star where you can look upwards towards the surface or downwards towards the
well

known

Wherever you are, a certain condition of balance must be reached on the one hand there is the weight of all the layers above you pressing downwards and trying to squeeze closer the gas beneath ; on the other hand
centre.
;

the elasticity of the gas below you trying to expand and force the superincumbent layers outwards. Since
there
is

neither one thing nor the other happens and the star remains practically unchanged for hundreds of years, we

must

two tendencies just balance. At each point the elasticity of the gas must be just enough to and since it is balance the weight of the layers above
infer that the
;

the heat which furnishes the elasticity, this requirement And so we settles how much heat the gas must have.
find the degree of heat or temperature at each point.

The same thing can be expressed a little differently. As before, fix attention on a certain point in a star and consider how the matter above it is supported. If it were
not supported
it

would

fall

to

the centre under the

attractive force of gravitation.

The

a succession of minute blows delivered

support is given by by the particles

underneath

we have seen

that their heat energy causes

them

to

move

in all directions,

the matter above.

and they keep on striking Each blow gives a slight boost up-'

wards, and the whole succession of blows supports the upper material in shuttlecock fashion. (This process is not confined to the stars
;

for instance,

it is

in this

way

that

a motor

13 Temperature In the Interior An increase of car is supported by its tyres.)

temperature would
particles,

mean an

and therefore an increase

increase of activity of the in the rapidity and

Evidently we have to assign a strength of the blows. sum total of the blows is neither the that such temperature
too great nor too small to keep the upper material steadily supported. That in principle is our method of calculating the temperature.
force will

obvious difficulty arises. The whole supporting depend not only on the activity of the particles (temperature) but also on the number of them (density).

One

the density of the matter at an It is in this conarbitrary point deep within the sun. nexion that the ingenuity of the mathematician is required.
Initially

we do

not

know

He

has a definite amount of matter to play with, viz. the known mass of the sun so the more he uses in one part
;

of the globe the less he will have to spare for other parts. He might say to himself, I do not want to exaggerate
'

the temperature, so I will see if

'

going beyond 10, 000,000. activity to be ascribed to each particle ; therefore when the mathematician reaches a great depth in the sun and
accordingly has a heavy weight of upper material to sustain, his only resource is to use large numbers of particles
to give the required total impulse.

can manage without That sets a limit to the

I

He will then find that

he has used up
left to
fill

all

up

the centre.

his particles too fast, and has nothing Of course his structure, sup-

ported on nothing, would come tumbling down into the

hollow.
to build

In that

way we can prove

star of the

up

permanent

that it is impossible dimensions of the sun

without introducing an activity or temperature exceeding 10,000,000, The mathematician can go a step beyond
this
;

instead of merely finding a lower limit,

he can

14
ascertain

Interior of a Star what must be nearly the true temperature

The

dis-

tribution

by taking into account the fact that the temmust not be patchy'. Heat flows from one place perature to another, and any patchiness would soon be evened outin an actual star. I will leave the mathematician to deal more thoroughly with these considerations, which belong to the I am content if I have shown following up of the clue you that there is an opening for an attack on the problem. This kind of investigation was started more than fifty years ago. It has been gradually developed and corrected, until now we believe that the results must be nearly right
c

that
I

know how hot it is inside a star. mentioned just now a temperature of 6,000
really

we

that

was the temperature near the surface we actually see. There is no serious

the region which

difficulty in deter;

mining this surface temperature by observation in fact the same method is often used commercially for finding the temperature of a furnace from the outside. It is for
the deep regions out of sight that the highly theoretical method of calculation is required. This 6,000 is only
the marginal heat of the great solar furnace giving no idea of the terrific intensity within. Going down into the
interior the temperature rises rapidly to above a million degrees, and goes on increasing until at the sun's centre
it

about 40,000,000. Do not imagine that 40,000,000

is

is

a degree of heat

so extreme that temperature has become meaningless. These stellar temperatures are to be taken quite literally.

Heat

the energy of motion of the atoms or molecules of a substance, and temperature which indicates the degree
is
is

of heat

way of stating how

fast these

atoms or mole-

cules are moving.

this

For example,

at the temperature of

room the molecules of air

are rushing about with an

Temperature in the Interior

15

average speed of 500 yards a second ; if we heated it up to 40,0005000 the speed would be just over 100 miles
the nothing to be alarmed about astronomer is quite accustomed to speeds like that. The velocities of the stars, or of the meteors entering the
a second.

That

is

between 10 and 100 miles a second. The velocity of the earth travelling round the sun is 20 miles a second. So that for an astronomer this is the most ordinary degree of speed that could be sugearth's atmosphere, are usually

gested,

and he naturally considers 40,000,000

is

comfortable sort of condition to deal with.

a very And if the

astronomer
for

not frightened by a speed of 100 miles a second, the experimental physicist is quite contemptuous of
it
;

he is used to handling atoms shot off from radium and

similar substances with speeds of 10,000 miles a second.

Accustomed as he is to watching these express atoms and testing what they are capable of doing, the physicist considers the jog-trot atoms of the stars very commonplace. Besides the atoms rushing to and fro in all directions

we have
waves

in the interior of a star great quantities of ether

also rushing in all directions. Ether waves are called by different names according to their wave-length.

The longest are

then come

the Hertzian waves used in broadcasting ; the infra-red heat waves ; next come waves of

ordinary visible light ; then ultra-violet photographic or chemical rays ; then X-rays ; then Gamma rays emitted by radio-active substances. Probably the shortest of all
are the rays constituting the very penetrating radiation found in our atmosphere, which according to the investigations of Kohlhorster and Millikan are believed to reach us from interstellar space. These are all funda-

mentally the same but correspond to different octaves. The eye is attuned to only one octave, so that most of

The
are invisible
;

Interior of

a Star

them

but essentially they are of the same

nature as visible light.

ether waves inside a star belong to the division called X-rays. They are the same as the X-rays produced
artificially in
*
'

The

an X-ray tube. On the average they are than the X-rays used in hospitals, (i.e. longer) but not softer than some of those used in laboratory
softer

experiments.

Thus we have in the interior of a star some-

thing familiar and extensively studied in the laboratory. Besides the atoms and ether waves there is a third
population to join in the dance.
free electrons.

There

are multitudes of

The

electron

is

weighing no more than 1/1,840 of the

is

the lightest thing known, lightest atom. It

alone.

simply a charge of negative electricity wandering about An atom consists of a heavy nucleus which is

usually surrounded by a girdle of electrons. It is often compared to a miniature solar system, and the comparison The gives a proper idea of the emptiness of an atom.

nucleus

is

compared

to the sun,

and the

electrons to the

Each kind of atom each chemical element planets. has a different quorum of planet electrons. Our own solar
system with eight planets might be compared especially with the atom of oxygen which has eight circulating electrons.

usually regard the girdle or crinoline of electrons as an essential part of the atom
terrestrial

In

physics

we

we rarely meet with atoms incompletely dressed when we do meet with an atom which has lost one or two But in the electrons from its system, we call it an ion
because
;
'

'.

interior of a star,
it

owing

to the great

would be absurd

to exact

commotion going on, standard of a meticulous such

attire.

All our atoms have lost a considerable proportion of their planet electrons and are therefore ions according
to the strict nomenclature.

17
lonization of

Atoms

the high temperature inside a star the battering of the particles by one another, and more especially the
collision of the ether

At

electrons to be

broken

waves (X-rays) with atoms, cause off and set free. These free elec-

trons form the third population to which I have referred. For each individual the freedom is only temporary, because
it

will presently
;

atom

be captured by some other mutilated but meanwhile another electron will have been
off

broken

somewhere

else to take its place in the free

population. This breaking away of electrons from atoms is called ionization^ and as it is extremely important in the

study of the stars of the process.

I will

presently

show you photographs

'

I have ; already a shown you photographs of star, so I ought to show you a photograph of an atom. Nowadays that is quite easy.

My

'

subject

is

Stars

and Atoms

Since there are

tiniest piece

some

trillions
it

of atoms present in the

would be very confusing if the photograph showed them all. Happily the photograph exercises discrimination and shows only express train
of material
'

'

atoms which
others.

flash past like meteors, ignoring all the can arrange a particle of radium to shoot only a few express atoms across the field of the camera, and so have a clear picture of each of them.

We

* is a photograph of three or four atoms which Fig. 3 have flashed across the field of view giving the broad

These are atoms of helium discharged straight tracks. at high speed from a radio-active substance.

wonder if there is an under-current of suspicion in your minds that there must be something of a fake about
I
1

am

indebted to Professor C. T. R. Wilson for Figs. 3-6.

3308

The

this

photograph. are showing themselves

not

Interior of a Star Are these really the single atoms

that

those infinitesimal units which seemed to be theoretical concepts far many years ago outside any practical apprehension ? I will answer that question by asking you one. You see a dirty mark on the picture. Is that somebody's thumb ? If you say Yes, then I assure you unhesitatingly that these streaks are single atoms. But if you are hypercritical and say No. That is not anybody's thumb, but it is a mark that shows that somebody's thumb has been there ', then I must be equally cautious and say that the streak is a mark that shows where an atom has been. The photograph instead of being the impression of an atom is the impression of
'

the impression of an atom, just as it is not the impression of a thumb but the impression of the impression of a

thumb.
sion
is

don't see that

it

really matters that the impresI

second-hand instead of first-hand.

do not think

we have been guilty of any more faking than the criminologist who scatters powder over a finger-print to make it visible, or a biologist who stains his preparations with the same object. The atom in its passage leaves what we might call a scent along its trail and we owe to Pro*

'

fessor C,

T. R. Wilson a most ingenious device for making the scent visible. Professor Wilson's pack of hounds consists of water vapour which flocks to the trail and there
* '

condenses into tiny drops. You will next want to see a photograph of an electron. That also can be managed. The broken wavy trail in
Fig. 3
is
is

an electron.

Owing to its small mass the electron

more easily turned aside in its course than the heavy atom which rushes bull-headed through all obstacles. Fig. 4 shows numerous electrons, and it includes one of very high speed which on that account was able to make

%r

4
*:?> s^&:*%$Z'' v ^"\iV^^ >~^;>:- Ol^Y
;
'"

:-

^^

<

FIG. 3

'

FIG.

FAST-MOVING ATOMS AND ELECTRONS

lonization of *Atom$
a straight track.

19

used for making the tiny drops of water separately. have seen photographs of atoms and free electrons.

Incidentally it gives away the device the tracks visible, because you can see

We

Now we

want a photograph of X-rays

to complete the

stellar population.

We cannot quite manage that, but we

can very nearly. Photographs by X-rays are common enough ; but a photograph of X-rays is a different matter.
I have already said that electrons can be broken away from atoms by X-rays colliding with them. When this

happens the free electron is usually shot off with high velocity so that it is one of the express electrons which
can be photographed. In Fig. 5 you see four electrons shot off in this way. You notice that they all start from points in the same line, and it does not require much imagination to see in your mind a mysterious power

That power

and creating the explosions. the X-rays which were directed in a narrow beam along the line (from right to left) when the photograph was taken. Although the X-rays are left to your
travelling along this line
is

imagination, the photograph at any rate shows the process of ionization which is so important in the stellar interior

the freeing of electrons from the atoms by the incidence of X-rays. You notice that it is just a chance whether the X-ray ionizes an atom when it meets it. There are

of atoms lying about (of which the photograph takes no notice) ; but, nevertheless, the X-rays travel a long way before meeting the atom which they choose to operate on.
trillions

can show you the other method of ionizing atoms by battering of a more mechanical kind in this case by the collision of a fast electron. In Fig. 6 a fast
Finally
I

electron

was travelling nearly horizontally, but the tiny

20

"The Interior

of a Star

water-drops that should mark its track are so spread out that you do not at first trace the connexion. Notice that
the drops occur in pairs. This is because the fast electron battered some of the atoms along its track, wrenching the track a broken

away an electron from each. You see at intervals along atom and a free electron lying side by side, though you cannot tell which is which. Occasionally the original fast electron was too vigorous and there is more of a mix up, but usually you can see clearly the two 1 fragments resulting from the smash. A cynic might remark that the interior of a star is
a very safe subject to talk about because no one can go there and prove that you are wrong. I would plead in

reply that at least

am

tunity for imagination ; I the interior of the star quite

*

not abusing the unlimited opporam only asking you to allow in

homely objects and processes which can be photographed. Perhaps now you will turn round on me and say, What right have you to suppose that Nature is as barren of imagination as you are ? Perhaps she has hidden in the star something novel which will upset all your ideas.' But I think that science would
never have achieved

much

progress

if it

had always

At

imagined unknown obstacles hidden round every corner. least we may peer gingerly round the corner, and per-

haps
all.

we shall find there is nothing very formidable after Our object in diving into the interior is not merely
;

to

admire a fantastic world with conditions transcending

it is to

ordinary experience
1

get at the inner mechanism which makes stars behave as they do. If we are to underPrimarily
it is

the electric charge and not the high speed of particles their appearance in these photographs. But a highthe speed particle leaves behind it a trail of electrically charged particles victims of its furious driving so that it is shown indirectly by its line of

which determines

victims.

stand the

lonization of *Atoms surface manifestations^ if we are

star differeth

21
to understand

why one

'

from another

star in glory \

we

must go below

to the engine-room

to trace the begin-

ning of the stream of heat and energy which pours out through the surface. Finally, then, our theory will take
us back to the surface and
shall be able to test by whether we have been badly comparison with observation misled. Meanwhile, although we naturally cannot prove a general negative, there is no reason to anticipate any-

we

thing which our laboratory experience does not warn us of.

The X-rays

in a star are the

same

as the

X-rays experi-

mented on in a laboratory, but they are enormously more abundant in the star. We can produce X-rays like the stellar X-rays, but we cannot produce them in anything like stellar abundance. The photograph (Fig. 5) showed a laboratory beam of X-rays which had wrenched away these would be four electrons from different atoms In the star must you speedily recaptured. imagine the
;

intensity multiplied are being wrenched

many
away

million-fold, so that electrons

as fast as they settle and the atoms are kept stripped almost bare. The nearly complete mutilation of the atoms is important in the study of

the stars for two

main reasons.

pronouncing an opinion on the plans of a building will want to know whether the material shown in the plans is to be wood or
first is this.

The

An

architect before

or tin or paper. Similarly it would seem essential before working out details about the interior of a star to know whether it is made of heavy stuff like lead or light
steel

stuff like carbon.

By means of
;

the spectroscope

we

can

find out a great deal the sun's atmosphere

about the chemical composition of but it would not be fair to take

22
this as a
It

The

Interior of

a Star

sample of the composition of the sun as a whole. would be very risky to make a guess at the elements

preponderating in the deep interior. Thus we seem to have reached a deadlock. But now it turns out that when
the atoms are thoroughly smashed up, they all behave at any rate in those properties with which nearly alike

we

are concerned in astronomy. The high temperature which we were inclined to be afraid of at first has

simplified things for us, because it has to a large extent eliminated differences between different kinds of material.

The

structure of a star
it is

is

an unusually simple physical

low temperatures such as we experience problem ; on the earth that matter begins to have troublesome and complicated properties. Stellar atoms are nude savages innocent of the class distinctions of our fully arrayed terat
restrial

atoms.

We are thus able to make progress with-

out guessing at the chemical composition of the interior.

necessary to make one reservation, viz. that there is not an excessive proportion of hydrogen. Hydrogen has
It is
its

of behaving ; but it makes very little difference which of the other 91 elements predominate. The other point is one about which I shall have more
It is that we must realize that the atoms in to say later. the stars are mutilated fragments of the bulky atoms with

own way

extended electron systems familiar to us on the earth; and therefore the behaviour of stellar and terrestrial gases
is

by no means the same

in regard to properties

which

concern the size of the atoms.

To
a star,
layers

illustrate the effect

we

of the chemical composition of revert to the problem of the support of the upper

by the gas underneath. At a given temperature every independent particle contributes the same amount of support no matter what its mass or chemical nature; the

lighter

lonization of\Atoms 23 atoms make up for their lack of mass by moving

This
is

a well-known law originally found in experimental chemistry, but now explained by the kinetic theory of Maxwell and Boltzmann. Suppose we

more

actively.

had originally assumed the sun to be composed entirely of silver atoms and had made our calculations of temperature accordingly; afterwards we change our minds and substitute a lighter element, aluminium. A silver atom weighs just four times as much as an aluminium atom hence we must substitute four aluminium atoms for every silver atom in order to keep the mass of the sun unchanged. But now the supporting force will everywhere be quadrupled, and all the mass will be heaved outwards by it if we make no further change. In order
;

to keep the balance, the activity of each particle must be that means that we must assign reduced in the ratio i throughout the aluminium sun temperatures J of those
;

assigned to the silver sun. Thus for unsmashed atoms a change in the assigned chemical composition makes a big

change in our inference as to the internal temperature. But if electrons are broken away from the atom these
also

become independent
;

the upper layers.

A free electron gives just as much sup-

particles rendering support to

it is of much smaller mass, but it port as an atom does moves about a hundred times as fast. The smashing of one silver atom provides 47 free electrons, making with the residual nucleus of the atom 48 particles in all. The aluminium atom gives 1 3 electrons or 1 4 particles in all thus 4 aluminium atoms give 56 independent particles* The change from smashed silver to an equal mass of smashed aluminium only means a change from 48 to 56
;

particles, requiring

cent.

We

a reduction of temperature by 14 per can tolerate that degree of uncertainty in our

24

The

Interior of a Star

estimates of internal temperature ; J it is a great improvement on the corresponding calculation for unsmashed

atoms which was uncertain by a factor 4.

Besides bringing closer together the results for different varieties of chemical constitution, ionization by increasing
the

number of supporting

particles lowers the calculated

temperatures considerably. It is sometimes thought that the exceedingly high temperature assigned to the interior of a star is a modern sensationalism. That is not so. The
early investigators, who neglected both ionization and radiation pressure, assigned much higher temperatures

than those

now

accepted.

Radiation Pressure and

Mass
is

The

stars differ

from one another in mass, that

to

say, in the quantity of material gathered together to form them ; but the differences are not so large as we might have expected from the great variety in brightness.

We

a fair

cannot always find out the mass of a star, but there are number of stars for which the mass has been deter-

mined by astronomical measurements. The mass of the I will write it on the blackboard sun is

2000000000000000000000000000
I

tons

hope I have counted the o's rightly, though I dare say you would not mind much if there were one or two too many or too few. But Nature does mind. When she

made

the stars she evidently attached great importance to She has an idea that getting the number of o's right.
for silver
likely to

1 Other substitutions and the differences are

do not

as

be toned

a rule cause greater change, down by mixture of many

elements.

for particles for silver to 81 particles

Excluding hydrogen, the most extreme change is from 48 an equal mass of helium. But for

hydrogen the change is from 4.8 to 216, so that hydrogen gives widely different results from other elements.

FIG,

5,

IONIZATION BY X-RAYS

FIG. 6.

IONIZATION BY COLLISION

Radiation ^Pressure and {Mass

a star should contain a particular

25

amount of material.

Of
call

course she allows what the officials at the mint would

a

remedy '. She may even pass a star with one o too many and give us an exceptionally large star, or with one o too few, giving a very small star. But these deviations
and a mistake of two o's is almost unheard of. Usually she adheres much more closely to her pattern. How does Nature keep count of the o's ? It seems clear that there must be something inside the star itself which keeps check and, so to speak, makes a warning
are rare,

soon as the right amount of material has been think we know how it is done. gathered together.
protest
as

We

These and they exert a pressure on the matter which is caging them in. This outward force, if it is sufficiently powerful to be worth considering
are trying to escape outwards
in

You remember

the ether waves inside the star.

comparison with other forces, must be taken into account in any study of the equilibrium or stability of the
star.

Now
its
it is

but

small globes this force is quite trivial ; importance increases with the mass of the globe,
in
all

calculated that at just about the above mass it reaches equal status with the other forces governing the

and

equilibrium of the

star.

If

we had

never seen the stars

and were simply considering as a curious problem how

big a globe of matter could possibly hold together, we could calculate that there would be no difficulty up to

about two thousand quadrillion tons

conditions are entirely altered
to take control of the situation.

but beyond that the

and

this

new
I

force begins
afraid^ strict

Here,

am

calculation stops, and no one has yet been able to calculate what the new force will do with the star when it does take
control.

are

all

can scarcely be an accident that the stars so near to this critical mass ; and so I venture to
it

But

3308

26

*The Interior

of a Star
The new
force does not

conjecture the rest of the story.

but it makes it risky. It may prohibit larger mass, help a moderate rotation about the axis to break up the star.

Consequently larger masses will survive only rarely for the most part stars will be kept down to the mass at which the new force first becomes a serious menace. The force
;

of gravitation collects together nebulous and chaotic material ; the force of radiation pressure chops it off into
suitably sized lumps. This force of radiation pressure is better known to ' many people under the name pressure of light '. The

term

'

radiation

comprises

all

kinds

including light, so that the meaning is first shown theoretically and afterwards verified experi-

of ether-waves the same. It was

mentally that light exerts a minute pressure on any object on which it falls. Theoretically it would be possible to

knock a man over by turning a searchlight on him only the searchlight would have to be excessively intense, and the man would probably be vaporized first. Pressure of
light probably plays a great part in many celestial mena. One of the earliest suggestions was that the
particles

forming the

tail

phenominute of a comet are driven outwards

by the pressure of sunlight, thus accounting for the fact that a comet's tail points away from the sun. But that must be considered doubtful. Inparticular application
side the star the intense stream of light (or rather X-rays) is like a wind rushing outwards and distending the star.

The

Interior of

a Star

We
waves.

can

of a star

of a picture of the inside a hurly-burly of atoms, electrons, and etherDishevelled atoms tear along at 100 miles a

now form some kind

second, their normal array of electrons being torn from

The
them
in the

Interior of a Star

27

scrimmage.

100 times

faster to find

The lost electrons are speeding new resting places. Let us follow
There
is

the progress of one of them.

as an electron approaches
it

almost a collision

an atomic nucleus, but putting in a sharp curve. Sometimes on speed there is a side-slip at the curve, but the electron goes on After a thousand with increased or reduced energy.
sweeps round

narrow shaves, all happening within a thousand millionth of a second, the hectic career is ended by a worse side-slip
than usual.

The

electron

is

fairly caught,

and attached

to an atom. But scarcely has it taken up its place when an X-ray bursts into the atom. Sucking up the energy of the ray the electron darts off again on its next adventure.
I

am

afraid the
is

knockabout comedy of modern atomic

physics

The

not very tender towards our aesthetic ideals. stately drama of stellar evolution turns out to be more

like the hair-breadth

escapades on the films. The music of the spheres has almost a suggestion of jazz. And what is the result of all this bustle ? Very little*

The atoms and

where
;

electrons for all their hurry never get anythey only change places. The ether-waves are

the only part of the population

which accomplish anything

Although apparently darting in all directions indiscriminately, they do on the average make a slow proThere is no outward progress of the gress outwards. atoms and electrons gravitation sees to that. But slowly
permanent.
;

the encaged ether-waves leak outwards as through a sieve. An ether-wave hurries from one atom to another, for-

wards, backwards,
a

now

absorbed,

now

flung out again in

new

successor.
(ten

direction, losing its identity, but living again in its With any luck it will in no unduly long time
star) find itself

thousand to ten million years according to the mass

near the boundary.
It

of the

changes at

28

The

Interior of

a Star

the lower temperature from X-rays to light-rays, being altered a little at each re-birth. At last it is so near the

boundary that it can dart outside and travel forward in peace for a few hundred years. Perhaps it may in the end reach some distant world where an astronomer lies in wait to trap it in his telescope and extort from it the secrets
of
its

birth-place.

It is

the leakage that

and that is why we on in the turbulent crowd. form the waves are urged
;

particularly want to determine ; have to study patiently what is going

we

To put the problem in another

to flow out

by the temperature

gradient in the star, but are hindered and turned back by It is the their adventures with the atoms and electrons.

by the laws and theories developed from a study of these same processes in the the factor urging laboratory, to calculate the two factors and the factor hindering the outward flow and hence to
task of mathematics., aided

This calculated leakage should, of course, agree with astronomical measurements of the energy of heat and light pouring out of the star. And so finally we arrive at an observational test of the theories.
find the leakage.

Opacity of Stellar Matter Let us consider the factor which hinders the leakage the turning back of the ether-waves by their encounters with atoms and electrons. If we were dealing with light
waves we should
*

call this

opacity ', and we may for obstruction to X-rays. soon realize that the material of the star

obstruction to their passage conveniently use the same term

We

must be

decidedly opaque.

The

terior is so great that unless it

quantity of radiation in the inwere very severely confined

greater than the

the leakage would be

much

amount

29 Opacity of Stellar ^Matter of the out stars. The observe which we coming following
is

degree of opacity required observed the with to agree leakage. Let us enter the star

an

illustration of the typical

a region where the density is the same Capella and find as that of the atmosphere around us ; z a slab of the
material only two inches thick would form a screen so opaque that only one-third of the ether-waves falling on

one side would get through to the other side, the rest A foot or two of the being absorbed in the screen.
material

would be

practically a perfect screen.

If

we

are

thinking of light-waves this seems an astonishing opacity

for material as tenuous as air
;

but

we have

to

remember

that

it is

knows well the

an opacity to X-rays, and the practical physicist difficulty of getting the softer kinds of

X-rays to pass through even a few millimetres of air. There is a gratifying accordance in general order of

magnitude between the opacity inside the star, determined from astronomical observation of leakage, and the opacity of terrestrial substances to X-rays of more or less the same This gives us some assurance that our wave-length. theory is on the right track. But a careful comparison
shows us that there is some important difference between the stellar and terrestrial opacity.
In the laboratory we find that the opacity increases very rapidly with the wave-length of the X-rays that are used.

We
stars

do not find anything like the same difference in the although the X-rays in the cooler stars must be of

considerably greater wave-length than those in the hotter stars. Also, taking care to make the comparison at the

same wave-length
is

for both,

we

find that the stellar opacity

less

than the terrestrial opacity.

We

must follow up
air.

this divergence.
1

The mean density of Capella is

nearly the same as the density of the

30
There
is

The

Interior of

a Star

which an atom can obstruct ether-waves, but there seems to be no doubt that for X-rays both in the stars and in the laboratory the main part of the opacity depends on the process of ionization. The ether-wave falls on an atom and its energy is sucked up by one of the planet electrons which uses it to escape from the atom and travel away at high speed. The point
in
to notice is that in the very act of absorption the absorbing mechanism is broken, and it cannot be used again until

more than one way

has been repaired. To repair it the atom must capture one of the free electrons wandering about, inducing it to
it

take the place of the lost electron, In the laboratory we can only produce thin streams of X-rays so that each wave-trap is only called upon to
act occasionally.

There
it

before the next time

plenty of time to repair it a has chance of catching anything ;

is

and there

is

practically

no

traps being out of order. X-rays is exceedingly intense.

as fast as

of efficiency through the But in the stars the stream of

loss
It is like

an army of mice

marching through your larder springing the mouse-traps you can set them. Here it is the time wasted in resetting the traps by capturing electrons which of the catch depends almost and amount the counts, entirely on this. We have seen that the stellar atoms have lost most of that means that at any moment a large their electrons
;

proportion of the absorption traps are awaiting repair. For this reason we find a smaller opacity in the stars than
in terrestrial material.
result of

The lowered opacity is simply the the absorbing mechanisms they overworking can also see have too much radiation to deal with.

We

why the laws of stellar and terrestrial opacity are somewhat different. The rate of repair, which is the main

Opacity of Stellar {Matter

consideration in stellar opacity,
is

31

increased

by compress-

because then the atom will not have to ing the material, and capture a free electron. Conmeet wait so long to
stellar opacity will increase with the density. sequently the In terrestrial conditions there is no advantage in accelerat-

will in any case be completed in ing the repair which sufficient time ; thus terrestrial opacity is independent of

the density.

The

theory of stellar opacity thus reduces mainly to

the theory of the capture of electrons by ionized atoms ; not that this process is attended by absorption of X-rays

but it is the necesactually attended by emission The physical theory of sary preliminary to absorption. is not yet fully definitive ; but it is suffielectron-capture
it is

provisionally in our calculations of the hindering factor in the leakage of radiation from the stars.
ciently
it

advanced for us to make use of

The

'Relation of Brightness to

Mass

We
first,

do not want

to tackle too difficult a

and so
If you

we

shall deal

with stars

problem at composed of perfect

'

gas.

do not

like the technical phrase

'

'

you can

call it

simply
It is

gas

',

because

all

perfect gas the terrestrial

gases that

you

are likely to think of are without sensible

imperfection.

terrestrial gases

become imperfect.

only under high compression that I should mention

r

that there are plenty of examples of gaseous many stars the material is so inflated that

stars.
it
is

In

more

tenuous than the air around us

inside Capella

for example, if you were would not the material of Capella notice you any more than you notice the air in this room.
; 1

Unless otherwise indicated

'.

'

'

gaseous

is

intended to

mean composed

'

of perfect gas

32

The

Interior of a Star

For gaseous stars, then, the investigation will give formulae by which, given the mass of the star, we can calculate how much energy of heat and light will leak out
of
is

In Fig. 7 a curve drawn giving this theoretical relation between the brightness and mass of a star. Strictly speaking, there is another factor besides the mass which affects the calculated
it

in short,

how

bright

it

will be.

you can have two stars of the same mass, the one dense and the other puffed out, and they will not have quite the same brightness. But it turns out (rather unexpectedly) that this other factor, density, makes very
brightness
;

little

difference to the brightness, always provided that the material is not too dense to be a perfect gas. I shall therefore say no more about density in this brief summary.

Here

The
is

are a few details about the scale of the diagram. brightness is measured in magnitudes, a rather tech-

nical unit.

You have

to

remember

that stellar magnitude

handicap the bigger the number, the worse the performance. The diagram includes practically
like a golfer's

the whole range of stellar brightness ; at the top 4 stars and at the the almost known, brightest represents

The difference nearly the faintest limit. from top to bottom is about the same as the difference between an arc light and a glow worm. The sun is near
bottom 12
is

magnitude

5.

These magnitudes

refer,

of course, to the

true brightness, not to the apparent brightness affected * by distance ; also, what is represented here is the heat
'

brightness
different

or heat intensity, which

is

sometimes a

little

from the light intensity. Astronomical instruments have been made which measure directly the heat instead of the light received from a star. These are quite but there are troublesome corrections on successful
;

4-

ij

(H)

'2

'6

'8

I'O

'2

First Class,

X Second

dm

Q Wields

iEclipsine Variables,

FIC.J,

ThcMass-bniiaositjrCtim.

34

The
it

Interior of a Star
is

account of the large absorption of heat in the earth's

atmosphere, and
in

most cases

easier

and more

accurate to infer the heat brightness from the light brightThe ness, making allowance for the colour of the star.
horizontal scale refers to mass, but it ing to the logarithm of the mass.
is

graduated accordAt the extreme left

the mass

is
;

30 x sun

about \ x sun, and on the extreme right about there are very few stars with masses outside

these limits.
labelled o-o.

The

sun's

mass corresponds

to the division

to

Having obtained our theoretical curve, the first thing do is to test it by observation* That is to say, we

gather together as many stars as we can lay hands on for which both the mass and absolute brightness have been

measured.
see

We
is

to the appropriate horizontal

plot the corresponding points (opposite and vertical graduations) and

fall

whether they

the theory

right.

on the curve, as they ought to do if There are not many stellar masses
precision.

determined with

much

Everything that

is

reasonably trustworthy has been included in Fig. 7.

The

circles, crosses, squares, and triangles refer to different some good, some bad, some very bad. kinds of data The circles are the most trustworthy. Let us run through them from right to left. First comes the bright component of Capella, lying beautifully on the curve because I drew the curve through it. You see, there was one numerical constant which in the present state of our knowledge of atoms and ether-waves, &c., it was not

possible to determine with

theory. one direction

So the curve when

it

any confidence from pure was obtained was loose in

It

and could be raised or lowered.

it

was

anchored by making

pass through the bright component of Capella which seemed the best star to trust to for this

The Illation of brightness

to

3\4ass

35

could be no further tampering purpose. After that there with the curve. Continuing to the left we have the fainter
next Sirius ; then, in a bunch, component of Capella two components of a Centauri (the nearest fixed star) with a circle the Sun between them, and lying on the curve
;

six double stars in the Hyades. representing the mean of are two components of a wellthere the left on Finally, far

known double star called Krueger 60. The observational data for testing the curve are not so but extensive and not so trustworthy as we could wish
;

from Fig. 7 that the theory is subit really does enable us to and stantially confirmed, predict the brightness of a star from its mass, or vice versa. That
still I

think

it is

plain

a useful result, because there are thousands of stars of which we can measure the absolute brightness but not the
is

mass, and
confidence.

we can now

infer their masses with

some

have not been able to give here the details of the calculation, I should make it plain that the curve in
Since
I

Fig. 7

is

traced

except for the

through Capella. We can imagine physicists working on a cloud-bound planet such as Jupiter who have never seen the stars. They should be able to deduce by the method
explained on p. 25 that if there is a universe existing beyond the clouds it is likely to aggregate primarily into

by pure theory or terrestrial experiment one constant determined by making it pass

masses of the order a thousand quadrillion tons. They could then predict that these aggregations will be globes pouring out light and heat and that their brightness will

depend on the mass

way given by the curve in we have used for the Fig. 7. calculations would be accessible to them beneath the clouds, except that we have stolen one advantage over
All the information that

in the

36 them

The
this

Interior of

a Star
Even

in utilizing the bright

component of Capella.

without

forbidden peep, present-day physical theory

would enable them to assign a brightness to the invisible stellar host which would not be absurdly wrong. Unless than us would were wiser ascribe to they probably they
the stars a brilliance about ten times too great x not a bad error for a first attempt at so transcendent a problem.
all

We hope to clear up the discrepant factor

tion.

10 with further

knowledge of atomic processes ; meanwhile we shelve it by fixing the doubtful constant by astronomical observa-

Dense Stars

The agreement
curve
is

of the observational points with the remarkably close, considering the rough nature
;

of the observational measurements

and it seems to afford a rather strong confirmation of the theory. But there is one awful confession to make we have compared the
theory with the

the comparison was first made at the beginning of 1924 no one entertained any doubt that they were the wrong stars. must recall that the theory was developed for stars

wrong stars.

At

least

when

We

in the condition of a perfect gas.

1

For

this prediction it is

unnecessary to

In the right half of know the chemical composition

provided that extreme cases (e. g. an excessive proportion of For example, consider the hypotheses that hydrogen) are excluded. Capella is made respectively of (a) iron, (^) gold. According to theory

of the

stars,

the opacity of a star made of the heavier element would be 2-| times the opacity of a star made of iron. This by itself would make the golden star

a magnitude
substitution
;

= zj

times) fainter.

and although,

as explained

But the temperature is raised by the on p. 23, the change is not very

great, it increases the outflow

of heat approximately
is

^\

times.

The

resultant effect

independence ness of the results,

to explain.

Whilst this practically no change. of chemical constitution is satisfactory in regard to definiteit

on the brightness

makes the discrepant factor 10 particularly

difficult

'Dense Stars

37

all diffuse stars ; Capella Fig. 7 the stars represented are with a mean density about equal to that of the air in this

room may be taken

as typical. Material of this tenuity is evidently a true gas, and in so far as these stars agree with the curve the theory is confirmed. But in the left

half of the diagram

the Sun whose material is 60 denser than iron, and many denser than water, Krueger

we have

other stars of the density usually associated with solid or What business have they on the curve liquid matter.

reserved for a perfect gas ? When these stars were put into the diagram it was not with any expectation that they would agree with the curve ; in fact, the agreement was

most annoying.
sought be trusted on
for.

Something very

different

was being

The
its

idea was that the theory might perhaps own merits with such confirmation as

the diffuse stars had already afforded ; then by measuring how far these dense stars fell below the curve we should

have definite information as to

how great a deviation from a perfect gas occurred at any given density. According to current ideas it was expected that the sun would fall
three or four magnitudes below the curve, and the still denser Krueger 60 should be nearly ten magnitudes below. 1 You see that the expectation was entirely unfulfilled.

The shock was even

1

greater than I can well indicate to

is

Observation shows that the sun

the average diffuse star of the same spectral

about 4 magnitudes fainter than class, and Krueger 60 is 10

magnitudes fainter than diffuse stars of its class. The whole drop was generally assumed to be due to deviation from a perfect gas ; but this made no allowance for a possible difference of mass. The comparison
with the curve enables the dense
its

star to be compared with a gaseous star own and we see that the difference then disappears. So that mass, of there has no the been dense star is a gaseous star, and the (if mistake) differences above mentioned were due wholly to differences of mass.

38

The

Interior of

a Star

you, because the great drop in brightness when the star is too dense to behave as a true gas was a fundamental On the tenet in our conception of stellar evolution.
strength of
it

known
stars

as giants

the stars had been divided into two groups and dwarfs, the former being the gaseous

and the

latter the

dense
lie

stars.

Two
theory
;

alternatives

now

before us.

The
is

first is to

assume that something must have gone wrong with our

that the true curve for gaseous stars

not as

we

have drawn

it, but runs high up on the left of the diagram so that the Sun, Krueger 60, &c., are at the appropriate distances below it. In short, our imaginary critic was

right ; Nature had hidden something unexpected inside the star and so frustrated our calculations. Well, if this

were so, it would be something to have found our investigations.

it

out by
Is

The
it

other alternative

is

to consider this question

impossible that a perfect gas should have the density of iron ? The answer is rather surprising. There is no
earthly reason
far exceeding

why a perfect gas should not have a density iron. Or it would be more accurate to say,
it

the reason

why

should not

is

earthly

and does not apply

to the stars.

The sun's material,

really
is

in spite of
It

a perfect gas.

being denser than water, sounds incredible, but it must

be so. The feature of a true gas is that there is plenty of room between the separate particles a gas contains very little substance and lots of emptiness. Consequently when you squeeze it you do not have to squeeze the substance you just squeeze out some of the waste space. But if you go on squeezing, there comes a time when you have squeezed out all the empty space ; the atoms are
;

then

jammed

in contact

and any further compression

Stars
means squeezing the substance
compressibility
is

39
which
is

itself,

quite a

So as you approach that density different proposition. characteristic of a gas is lost and the the
In a liquid the atoms gas. will contact that are nearly in ; give you an idea of the density at which the gas loses its characteristic commatter
pressibility.

no longer a proper

big terrestrial atoms which begin to jam at a density near that of the liquid state do not exist in the
stars.

The

The

stellar

atoms have been trimmed down by

the breaking off of all their outer electrons. The lighter atoms are stripped to the bare nucleus of quite insignificant size. The heavier atoms retain a few of the closer electrons, but have not much more than a hundredth of the diameter of a fully arrayed atom. Consequently we can go on squeezing ever so much more before these tiny

atoms or ions jam in contact. At the density of water or even of platinum there is still any amount of room between the trimmed atoms ; and waste space remains to be
squeezed out as in a perfect gas. Our mistake was that in estimating the congestion in
the stellar ball-room

we had

forgotten that crinolines are

no longer
It

in fashion.
I

was,

suppose, very blind of us not to have foreseen

this result, considering

how much

attention

we had been

paying to the mutilation of the atoms in other branches of the investigation. By a roundabout route we have
reached a conclusion which
so
is

really very obvious.

And

we conclude
all

that the stars

*
'

on the
stars.

left

are after

not the

wrong

of the diagram The sun and other

dense stars are on the perfect gas curve because their material is perfect gas. Careful investigation has shown
that in the small stars

on the extreme

left

of Fig. 7 the

40

The

Interior of

a Star

of the atoms and electrons bring about a slight deviation from the ordinary laws of a gas ; it has been shown by R. H. Fowler that the effect is to make
electric charges

the gas not imperfect but superperfect it is more easily compressed than an ordinary gas. You will notice that

on the average the

the left of Fig.
7.

stars
It is

run a

little

above the curve on

is

probable that the deviation

genuine and is partly due to superperfection of the gas ; we have already seen that imperfection would have brought them below the curve. Even at the density of platinum there is plenty of waste on squeezing stellar space, so that in the stars we might go
matter to a density transcending anything known on the I will tell it later on. earth. But that 's another story
general agreement between the observed and predicted brightness of the stars of various masses is the main
test

The

of the correctness of our theories of their internal

incidence of their masses in a range which is especially critical for radiation pressure is also It would be an exaggeration to valuable confirmation.
constitution.

The

claim that this limited success

is

a proof that

we have
not a

reached the truth about the

proof, but
it is

stellar interior.

It is

the line of thought which

tangle
will
is

an encouragement to work farther along we have been pursuing. The

assume that

The more optimistic may now straightened out the more cautious make ready for the next knot. The one reason for
beginning to loosen.
it is
;

thinking that the real truth cannot be so very far away is that in the interior of a star, if anywhere, the problem of

matter

is
is

reduced to

nomer

its utmost simplicity and the astroon what is essentially a less ambitious engaged
;

problem than that of the

terrestrial physicist to

whom

"Dense Stars

41

matter always appears in the guise of electron systems of the most complex organization.

We have taken the present-day theories of physics and

pressed

them

to their remotest conclusions.

;

dogmatic intention in this

it is

the best

There is no means we have

of testing them and revealing their weaknesses if any. In ancient days two aviators procured to themselves

Daedalus flew safely through the middle air and was duly honoured on his landing. Icarus soared upwards to the sun till the wax melted which bound his wings and his flight ended in fiasco. In weighing their
wings.

achievements, there

The

classical
',

something to be said for Icarus. authorities tell us that he was only doing
is
*

prefer to think of him as the man who brought to light a serious constructional defect in the flying-machines of his day. So, too, in Science. Cautious
a stunt

but

Daedalus will apply his theories where he feels confident they will safely go ; but by his excess of caution their
hidden weaknesses remain undiscovered.
strain his theories to the breaking-point
'

Icarus will
till

the

weak

For the mere adventure ? Perhaps partly ; joints gape. that is human nature. But if he is destined not yet to reach the sun and solve finally the riddle of its constitution,

we may

at least

hope

to learn

from

his

journey some

hints to build a better machine.

3308

LECTURE

II

SOME RECENT INVESTIGATIONS

IT
if
it

will help us to appreciate the astronomical significance of what we have learnt in the previous lecture

we

turn from the general to the particular and see how I will take two stars round applies to individual stars.
stories of special interest,

which centre

and

relate the

history of our knowledge of them.

The Story of Algol

This
is

a detective story,

Missing

Word

which we might and the False Clue '.

call

The

In astronomy, unlike

many

sciences,
;

and probe the objects of our study passively and receive and decode the messages that they send to us. The whole of our information about the stars
comes to us along rays of
light
;

we cannot handle we have to wait

we watch and

try to

understand their signals. There are some stars which seem to be sending us a regular series of dots and dashes
like the intermittent light

from a lighthouse.
;

We canby careful

not translate this as a morse code

nevertheless,

measurement we disentangle a great deal of information from the messages. The star Algol is the most famous
'

of these
it is

variable stars

'.

We learn from the signals that

round each
other.

really

two
'

stars revolving

Some-

times the brighter of the two stars is hidden, giving a deep dash ; sometimes the faint star is hidden, eclipse or
'
'

giving a dot '. This recurs in a period of 2 days 21 the period of revolution of the two stars. hours

There was a great deal more information in the mes-

The Story of <Algol

sage, but
it

43

was rather tantalizing. There was, so to If we could supply that speak, just one word missing. word the message would give full and accurate particulars the diameters and masses as to the size of the system
of the two components, their absolute brightness, the
distance between them, their distance from the sun. Lacking the word the message told us nothing really definite about any of these things.

been human
word.

In these circumstances astronomers would scarcely have if they had not tried to guess the missing

The word should have

told us

how much

bigger

the bright star was than the fainter, that is to say, the Some of the less ratio of the masses of the two stars.

famous variable

complete messages. (These could accordingly be used for testing the relation of mass and absolute brightness, and are represented by triangles
in Fig. 7.)

stars give us

about Algol arose from the of the excessive brightness bright component which
difficulty

The

swamped and made

from the

illegible the

more

delicate signals

faint component. From the other systems we could find the most usual value of the mass ratio, and base on that a guess as to its probable value for Algol. Different

authorities preferred slightly different estimates, but the general judgement was that in systems like Algol the

bright component is twice as massive as the faint component. And so the missing word was assumed to be

on this assumption the various dimensions of the system were worked out and came to be generally accepted two
;

'

as near the truth.

That was

sixteen years ago. 1

the sense of the message was made out to be that the brighter star had a radius of 1,100,000 kilo-

In this

way

metres (one and a half times the sun's radius), that Rougher estimates were made much earlier.
1

it

had

44

^Recent Investigations half the mass of the sun, and thirty times the sun's lightpower, &c. It will be seen at once that this will not fit a star of half the sun's mass ought our curve in Fig. 7 It was rather disto be very much fainter than the sun. concerting to find so famous a star protesting against the but after all the theory is to be tested by comtheory parison with facts and not with guesses, and the theory
;
;

Some

might well have a sounder basis than the conjecture as to the missing word. Moreover, the spectral type of is one that is not usually associated with low mass, Algol and this cast some suspicion on the accepted results.

we are willing to trust the theory given in the last lecture we can do without the missing word. Or, to put it another way, we can try" in succession various guesses instead of two until we reach one that gives the bright
If
*

'

in Fig. 7.
*

mass and luminosity agreeing with the curve guess two gives, as we have seen, a point which falls a long way from the curve. Alter the guess to three and recalculate the mass and brightness on this assumption the corresponding point is now

component

The
'

'

somewhat nearer to the curve. Continue with four ', five *, &c. if the point crosses the curve we know that we have gone too far and must take an intermediate value in order to reach the desired agreement. This was done in November 1925, and it appeared that the missing word a rather startling change. must be five ', not two
* ;
'

'

'

And now

the message ran Radius of bright component = 2, 140,000 kilometres.

Mass of bright component =4-3

If

x sun's mass.

you compare these with the

is

see that there

a great alteration.

original figures you will The star is now

assigned a large mass much more appropriate to a B-type It also turns out that Algol is more than a hundred star.

The Story of *Algol

45
"

times as bright as the sun ; and its parallax is 0-028 twice the distance previously supposed. At the time there seemed little likelihood that these
conclusions could be tested.
to the parallax

Possibly the prediction as

might be proved or disproved by a trigonometrical determination; but it is so small as to be almost out of range of reasonably accurate measurement.

We
'

could only adopt a take If you accept the theory, this

it
is

or leave

it

attitude
is

what Algol

like

if

you to you/ But meanwhile two astronomers at Ann Arbor Observatory had been making a search for the missing word by a remarkable new method. They had in fact found the word and published it a year before, but it had not become widely known. If a star is rotating, one edge or limb is coming towards us and the other going away from us. We can measure speeds towards us or away from us by means of the Doppler effect on the spectrum,
*
'

distrust the theory, these results are of

no

interest

obtaining a definite result in miles per second. Thus we can and do measure the equatorial speed of rotation of
the sun by observing first the east limb then the west limb and taking the difference of velocity shown. That is all

very well on the sun, where you can cover up the disk except the special part that you want to observe but how
;

can you cover up part of a star when a star is a mere point of light ? You cannot ; but in Algol the covering up is

done for you.

it

The

faint

component

is

your screen.

As

passes in front of the bright star there is a moment when it leaves a thin crescent showing on the east and

another

moment when uncovered. Of course,

a thin crescent on the west

the star
is

is

too far

actually to see the crescent shape, but at these

away you moments

for

46
you

Some Decent Investigations

receive light from the crescents only, the rest of the disk being hidden. By seizing these moments you can

the measurements just as though you had maniFortunately the speed of pulated the screen yourself. rotation of Algol is large and so can be measured with
relatively small error.
city

make

by

Now multiply the equatorial velothe period of rotation ; * that will give you the
Divide by 6-2 8, and you have

circumference of Algol. the radius.

That was the method developed by Rossiter and McLaughlin. The latter who applied it to Algol found the radius of the bright component to be
2,
1

80,000 kilometres.

So

far as can

be judged his result has considerable accu-

racy; indeed it is probable that the radius is now better known than that of any other star except the sun. If you
will

now turn back to p. 44 and compare it with the value found from the theory you will see that there is cause for

satisfaction. McLaughlin evaluated the other constants and dimensions of the system ; these agree equally well, but that follows automatically because there was only one missing word to be supplied. In both determinations the missing word or mass ratio turned out to be 5-0. This is not quite the end of the story. Why had the first guess at the mass ratio gone so badly wrong ? We understand by now that a disparity in mass is closely associated with a disparity in brightness of the two stars.

The
1

disparity in brightness was given in Algol's original message ; it informed us that the faint component gives

The

observed period of Algol

is

the period of revolution, not of rota-

tion.

But the two components are very close together, and there can be no doubt that owing to the large tidal forces they keep the same faces turned towards each other that is to say, the periods of rotation and of
;

revolution are equal.

The Story of <Algol

47

about one-thirteenth of the light of the bright one.

According to (At least that was how we interpreted it.) to a mass ratio this curve our 2f, which is not corresponds much improvement on the original guess 2. For a mass

companion ought to have been much fainter in fact its light should have been undetectable. Although considerations like these could not have had much influence on the original guess, they seemed at first to reassure us that there was not very much wrong with it. Let us call the bright component Algol A and the faint
ratio 5 the

component Algol B. Some years ago a new discovery was made, namely Algol C. It was found that Algol A and B together travel in an orbit round a third star in at least they are travela period of just under two years ling round in this period, and we must suppose that there
something present for them to revolve around. Hitherto we had believed that when Algol A was nearly hidden at the time of deepest eclipse all the remaining light must
is

belongs always shining without interference* to Consequently the mass ratio 2~| is that of Algol Algol C. The light from Algol B is inappreciable as it
;

come from Algol B

Algol C, which

but

now

it is

clear that

it

to

is

should be for a mass ratio

.*

A and B was confused, not of the account on missing word, but because a word only or two of another message from Algol C had got mixed up so that even when the missing word was found with it to be five and confirmed in two ways, the message was
The message from Algol
;
* 9

not quite coherent.

1

In another place the message seemed

is

may be of interest to add that although the proper light of Algol B inappreciable, we can observe a reflection (or re-radiation) of the light
It

of Algol
as Algol

A
B

by
*

it.

This
or
*

reflected light changes like

full
'.

moonlight according

is

new *

48
to
is

Some Decent Investigations

waver and read
*

two-and-a-half
*

'.

The
*

finishing step

the discovery that two-and-a-half belongs to a different message from a previously unsuspected star, Algol C. And so it all ends happily.

The

best detective

is

not

astronomical detective

made

infallible. In this story our a reasonable but unsuccessful

his error earlier, only there

guess near the beginning of the case. He might have seen was a false clue dropped

a third party

who happened
all

which seemed to lucky. But it makes

by be present at the crime, confirm the guess. This was very unto

the better detective story of

it.

The Story of the Companion of Sirius

The

title
*.

of this detective story

is

The

Nonsensical

Message
Sirius
it

the most conspicuous star in the sky. Naturally was observed very often in early days, and it was used
is

by astronomers along with other bright stars to determine time and set the clocks by. It was a clock sfar, as we say. But it turned out that it was not at all a good clock it would gain steadily for some years, and then lose. In 1844 Bessel found out the cause of this irregularity; Sirius was describing an elliptic orbit. Obviously there
;

must be something
to

for it to move around, and so it came be recognized that there was a dark star there which no one had ever seen. I doubt whether any one expected
it

would ever be
the

seen.

The Companion

of Sirius was,

We

first invisible star to be regularly recognized. not to call such a star hypothetical. The ought mechanical properties of matter are much more crucial

I believe,

than the accidental property of being visible ; we do not consider a transparent pane of glass hypothetical '. There
*

was near

Sirius

something which exhibited the most uni-

The Story of the Companion of Sirius

49

versal mechanical property of matter, namely, exerting force on neighbouring matter according to the law of

gravitation.

That

is

better evidence of the existence of

a material mass than ocular evidence would be.

However, eighteen years later the Companion of Sirius was actually seen by Alvan Clark. This discovery was unique in its way Clark was not looking at Sirius because he was interested in it, but because Sirius was a nice bright point of light with which to test the optical perfection of a large new object-glass that his firm had made. I dare say that when he saw the little point of light close to Sirius he was disappointed and tried to polish it away. However, it stayed, and proved to be the already known but hitherto unseen Companion.
;

The

big

rather spoil the

modern telescopes romance but

;

easily show the star and as romance faded, know-

ledge grew, and we now know that the a star not much less massive than the sun.

Companion
It

is

has 4/^ths of the mass of the sun, but gives out only i/36oth of the sun's light. The faintness did not particularly surprise
us
*
;

presumably there should be white-hot

stars

glowing

very brightly and red-hot stars glowing feebly, with all sorts of intermediate degrees of brightness. It was

assumed that the Companion was one of the feeble

only just red hot. In 1914 Professor

stars

at the Mount Wilson Obwas not a red star. It was white white hbt. Why, then, was it not shining brilliantly? Apparently the only answer was that it must be a very small star. You see, the nature and colour of the light show that its surface must be glowing more intensely

Adams

servatory found that

it

1 The mass-luminosity am speaking.

relation

was not suspected

at the

time of which

3308

50
sun's;

Some
;

1(ecent Investigations
total light is

than the sun's

only i/36oth of the therefore the surface must be less than i/36oth

but the

of the sun's.

That makes the radius less than i / 1 gth of the sun's radius, and brings the globe down to a size which we ordinarily associate with a planet rather than with a star. Working out the sum more accurately we
find that the

a globe intermediate in size between the earth and the next larger planet
is

Companion of Sirius

Uranus.
less

But if you are going to put a mass not much than that of the sun into a globe not very much larger than the earth, it will be a tight squeeze. The actual
density works out at 60,000 times that of water about a ton to the cubic inch.
just

We learn about the stars by receiving and interpreting

the messages which their light brings to us. The message of the Companion of Sirius when it was decoded ran
:

am composed of material

thing you have ever come would be a little nugget that you could put in a matchbox.' What reply can one make to such a message ? The
reply which most of us Don't talk nonsense.'

3,000 times denser than anyacross ; a ton of my material

made

in

1914 was

Shut up.

924 the theory described in the been developed and you will remember
in
1
;

But

last lecture

had
end

that at the

it

pointed to the possibility that matter in the stars might be compressed to a density much transcending our ter-

restrial experience.

This called back to mind the strange message of the Companion of Sirius. It could no longer be dismissed as obvious nonsense. That does not mean
could immediately assume it to be true ; but it must be weighed and tested with a caution which we

that

we

should not care to waste over a mere nonsense jingle. It should be understood that it was very difficult to

The Story of the Companion of Sirius

51

as a mistake. As to explain away the original message the mass being 4/^ths of the sun's mass there can be no

one of the very best determinations of stellar mass. Moreover, it is obvious that the mass must be large if it is to sway Sirius out of its course and upset its punctuality as a clock. The determination of the radius is less direct, but it is made by a method
serious

doubt

at

all.

It is

which has had conspicuous success when applied to other stars. For example, the radius of the huge star Betelgeuse was first calculated in this way afterwards it was found possible to measure directly the radius of Betelgeuse by
;

means of an interferometer devised by Michelson, and the direct measurement confirmed the calculated value.
Again the Companion of
its

Sirius does not stand alone in

peculiarity.

At

least

two other

stars

have sent us

messages proclaiming incredibly high density ; and considering our very limited opportunities for detecting this
condition, there can be
little

doubt that these

'

white

dwarfs

',

as they are called, are comparatively

to trust entirely to

abundant
lest

in the stellar universe,

But we do not want

it

one clue

some unsuspected way. prove 1924 Professor Adams set to work again
false in

Therefore in
to

apply to the
Einstein's

message

a test

which ought to be

crucial*

theory of gravitation indicates that all the lines of the spectrum of a star will be slightly displaced towards the

red end of the spectrum as compared with the corresponding terrestrial lines. On the sun the effect is almost
too small to be detected having regard to the

many

causes

of slight shift which have to be disentangled*

To me

personally Einstein's theory gives much stronger assurance of the real existence of the effect than does the
observational evidence available.
Still it is

a striking- fact

52
that those

Some

T^ecent Investigations

the investigation are now unanimous in their judgement that the effect really occurs

who have made

on the sun, although some of them at first thought that they had evidence against it. Hitherto Einstein's theory
has been chiefly regarded by the practical astronomer as something he is asked to test ; but now the theory has
a chance to

show its mettle by helping us to test someThe Einstein thing much more doubtful than itself. effect is proportional to the mass divided by the radius and since the radius of the Companion of of the star
;

Sirius

is

very small
It

(if

the message

is

right) the effect will

be very large. as on the sun.

should in fact be thirty times as large That lifts it much above all the secondary

causes of shift of the lines which

made

the test on the

sun so uncertain.

The

observation

is

very

difficult

because the

Com-

is faint for work of this kind, and scattered light from its overpoweringly brilliant neighbour causes much trouble. However, after a year's effort

panion of Sirius

Professor

Adams made

satisfactory

measurements, and he

found a large

Expressing the results in the usual unit of kilometres per second, the mean of his
shift as predicted.

measurements came to
Professor
stone.

Adams

whilst the predicted shift was 20. has thus killed two birds with one
1

9,

He has carried out a new test of Einstein's general

theory of relativity, and he has shown that matter at least 2,000 times denser than platinum is not only possible but 1 This is the best actually exists in the stellar universe.
confirmation
1

we could have
'

for our view that the sun with

'

and perfect gas of the density of platinum ' material 2,000 times denser than platinum have often been run together
references to
*

My

perfect gas 2,000 times denser than platinum '. It is to calculate what is the condition of the material in the scarcely possible but I do not expect it to be a perfect gas. of Sirius, Companion

by

reporters into

The Story of the Companion of Sirius

;

53

a density it times that of water is still very far indeed from the maximum density of stellar matter and it is
therefore entirely reasonable that having like a perfect gas.
I

we should

find

it

be-

have said that the observation was exceedingly diffiHowever experienced the observer, I do not think cult.

we ought

to put implicit trust in a result which strains his skill to the utmost until it has been verified by others

working independently.
present conclusions.

Therefore you should for the

make

the usual reservations in accepting these But science is not just a catalogue of ascer;

tained facts about the universe

it is

mode

of progress,

sometimes tortuous,
interest in

sometimes uncertain.

And

our

not merely a desire to hear the we like to discuss latest facts added to the collection
science
is
;

our hopes and

I

fears,

probabilities and expectations.

it

have

told the detective story so far as

has yet unrolled

itself.

do not know whether we have reached the

last chapter.

Unknown Atoms and

It

Interpretation of Spectra

should be understood that this matter of enormous

density is not supposed to be any strange substance a new chemical element or elements. It is just ordinary matter smashed about by the high temperature and so

capable of being packed more tightly just as more people could be squeezed into a room if a few bones were

one of the features of astronomical physics that it shows us the ordinary elements of the earth in an smashed or ionized to a degree that extraordinary state has either not been reproduced or has been reproduced
broken.
It is

with great difficulty in the laboratory. It is not only in the inaccessible interior of the star that we find matter
in a state outside terrestrial experience.

54 Here

is

T^ecent Investigations a picture of the Ring Nebula in Lyra

Some

(Fig. 8).

It is taken through a prism so that we see not one ring but a number of rings corresponding to different lines

of the spectrum and representing the different kinds of atoms which are at work producing the light of the
nebula.

The

smallest ring,

which

is

rather faint (marked

by an
atoms

arrow), consists of light produced by the helium not ordinary helium but smashed in the nebula

helium atoms.

It was one of the great laboratory achievements of recent times when Professor A. Fowler in 1912 succeeded in battering helium atoms in a vacuum tube

sufficiently to give this

kind of

light, already well

in the stars.

Two other rings are due to three these exceptions none of the rings have yet been imitated in the laboratory. For instance, we do not know
what elements are producing the two brightest rings on the extreme right and left respectively. We are sometimes asked whether any new elements show themselves in the stars which are not present or are not yet discovered on the earth. We can give fairly conThat, however, is not because fidently the answer No.
everything seen in the stars has been identified with known terrestrial elements. The answer is in fact given not by the astronomer but by the physicist. The latter
has been able to

known hydrogen. With

make out

the orderly scheme of the

elements

and

it

transpires that there are no gaps left for

fresh elements until

we come to elements of very high atomic weight, which would not be likely to rise into the atmosphere of a star and show themselves in astronomical
Every element carries a number, starting with hydrogen which is No. i, and going up to uranium
observation.
1

Photographed by Dr.

W. H.

Wright

at the

Lick Observatory,

California.

Unknown tAtoms
is

55

which more, the element carries its number-plate so conspicuously that a physicist is able to read it. He can, for instance, see that iron is No. 26
is

No. 92.

And what

without having to count up how many known elements precede it The elements have been called over by their

numbers, and up to No. 84 they have

'

all

answered

Present

'.*

The element helium (No.

2)

was

first

discovered by

Lockyer in the sun, and not until many years later was it found on the earth. Astrophysicists are not likely to they cannot discover new elerepeat this achievement
;

ments if there aren't any. The unknown source of the two rings close together on the right of the photograph a fainter ring) has been called nebulium. (a bright ring and

But nebulium
lost several

is

not a

familiar element which

new .element It we catmot identify

,

is

some

because

it

quite has

of

its

electrons.

An

atom which has

lost

an
;

electron

is

like a friend

his old acquaintances

who has shaved -off his moustache do not recognize him. We shall

recognize nebulium some day. The theoretical physicists are at work trying to find laws which will determine
exactly the kind of light given off by atoms in various so that it will be purely a matter of stages of mutilation

atom from the light it emits. The experimental physicists are at work trying more and more powerful means of battering atoms, so that one day a terrestrial atom will be stimulated to give nebulium light. It is a great race and I do not know which side to back. cannot astronomer do much to help the solution of The the problem he has set. I believe that if he would measure
calculation to infer the
;

1 Nos. 43, 6 1, 75 are recent discoveries and may require confirmation. There now remain only two gaps (85 and 87) apart from possible elements beyond uranium.

56

Some T^cent Investigations

with the greatest care the ratio of intensity of the two nebulium lines he would give the physicists a useful hint.

He

also provides another clue

it

though

it is difficult

to

make anything of

namely, the different sizes of the

rings in the photograph, showing a difference in the distribution of the emitting atoms. Evidently nebulium has
a fondness for the outer parts of the nebula and helium for the centre ; but it is not clear what inference should

be drawn from

this difference in their habits.

The atoms of different elements, and atoms

element in different states of ionization,
tinctive sets of lines

of the same

all

have dis-

which are shown when the

examined through a spectroscope.

Under

light is certain con-

ditions (as in the nebulae) these appear as bright lines ; but more often they are imprinted as dark lines on a con-

tinuous background. In either case the lines enable us to identify the element, unless they happen to belong to an atom in a state of which we have had no terrestrial
rash prophecy that knowledge of the composition of the heavenly bodies must be for ever beyond our reach has long been disproved ; and the
experience.
familiar elements, hydrogen, carbon, calcium, titanium, iron, and many others, can be recognized in the most
distant parts of the universe.

The

The

thrill

of this early dis-

covery has now passed. But meanwhile stellar spectroscopy has greatly extended its scope ; it is no longer chemical analysis, but physical analysis. When we meet

an old acquaintance there is first the stage of recognition ; After recognizing the next question is How are you ?
*
'

the stellar atom

*

we put
'

this
*

answers,

may

be.

Its

Quite sound or answer conveys information

question, and the atom Badly smashed ', as the case

as to its environit is

ment

the severity of the treatment to which

being

Interpretation of Spectra

57

and hence leads to a knowledge of the consubjected ditions of temperature and pressure in the object observed. Surveying the series of stars from the coolest to the
hottest,

we can

trace

how

the calcium atoms are at

first

a sign whole, then singly ionized, then doubly ionized that the battering becomes more severe as the heat be-

comes more

intense.

(The

last stage is indicated

by the

disappearance of all visible signs of calcium, because the ion with two electrons missing has no lines in the observable part of the spectrum.) The progressive change of other elements is shown in a similar way. great advance in this study was made in 1920 by Professor M. N. Saha,

who

first

applied the quantitative physical laws which

determine the degree of ionization at any given temperature and pressure. He thereby struck out a new line in astrophysical research which has been widely developed.

Thus,

note the place in the stellar sequence where complete calcium atoms give place to atoms with one electron missing, the physical theory is able to state the
if
1 Saha's methods corresponding temperature or pressure. have been improved by R. H. Fowler and E. A. Milne.

we

important application was to determine the surface temperatures of the hottest types of stars (12,000
stars are

One

25,000), since alternative methods available for cooler not satisfactory at these high temperatures. An-

other rather striking result was the discovery that the pressure in the star (at the level surveyed by the spectroscope)
it

is only i/io,oooth of an atmosphere; previously had been assumed on no very definite evidence to be about the same as that of our own atmosphere.
1

It does
is

other

known.

not give both temperature and pressure, but it gives one if the This is valuable information which may be pieced

together with other knowledge of the conditions at the surface of the stars.
3308

T^ecent Investigations We commonly use the method of spectrum analysis when we wish to determine which elements are present in a given mineral on the earth. It is equally trustworthy in examining the stars since it can make no difference whether the light we are studying comes from a body close at hand or has travelled to us for hundreds of years But one limitation in stellar work must across space. always be remembered. When the chemist is looking, say, for nitrogen in his mineral, he takes care to provide the conditions which according to his experience are necessary for the nitrogen spectrum to show itself. But
58
in the stars

Some

we have

to take the conditions as

is

we

find

them.

If nitrogen does not appear, that

is

no proof that

; likely that the stellar nitrogen atmosphere does not hit off the right conditions for the In the spectrum of Sirius the lines of hydrogen are test.

absent

it is

much more

We do not infer that Sirius

gen
;

exceedingly prominent and overwhelm everything else. is composed mainly of hydro-

temperature near 10,000, because it can be calculated that that is a temperature most favourable for a great development
of these hydrogen lines.

we

infer instead that its surface

is

at a

spectrum

is

iron.

We

In the sun the most prominent do not infer that the sun is un-

usually rich in iron ; we infer that it is at a comparatively low temperature near 6,000 favourable for the production of the iron spectrum.

At one time

it

was thought

that the prominence of hydrogen in Sirius and of metallic elements in the sun indicated an evolution of the elements,

hydrogen turning into heavier elements as the star cools from the Sirian to the solar stage. There is no ground
for interpreting the observations in that

way ; the fading of the hydrogen spectrum and the increase of the iron spectrum would occur in any case as the result of the fall

Interpretation of Spectra

59

of temperature ; and similar spurious appearances of evolution of elements can be arranged in the laboratory.
It is rather

probable that the chemical elements have

relative

much
this
is

the

same

abundance

in the stars that they

is

have on the earth.

All the evidence

consistent with

and for a few of the commoner elements there some positive confirmation. But we are limited to the
view
;

outside of the star as

we

are limited to the outside of

the earth in computing the abundance of the elements, so that this very provisional conclusion should not be

pressed unduly.

Spectral Series

kind of deduction, let us consider the spectrum shown in Fig. 9 and see what may be learnt from it. With a little trouble we can disentangle
illustrate further this

To

above

a beautifully regular series of bright lines. The marks will assist you to pick out the first few lines

of the series from the numerous other spectra mixed up with it. Noticing the diminishing spacing from right to
left,

you

will

be able to see that the

series continues to

the left for at least fifteen lines beyond the last one marked, the lines ultimately drawing close together and forming

'

head

'

to the series.

This

is

the famous Balmer Series

of hydrogen, and having recognized it we identify hydrogen as one of the elements present in the source of the
light.

But that

is

only the

first

step,

and we can proceed

to further inferences.

Professor Bohr's theory of the hydrogen atom teaches us that each line of the series is emitted by an atom in

a different state.

can be from the normal state consecutively, starting of the hydrogen atom as No. i. The light emitted in the
states

These

of excitation

'

numbered

60
first

Some Decent Investigations

few
states

comes into the part of the spectrum not reproduced here, and the first line in our picture corresponds to state No. 8. Counting to the left from this

you will recognize the successive lines without much diffiNow the successive states culty up to state No. 30. correspond to more and more swollen atoms, that is to electron * makes a wider and wider circuit. say, the planet The radius (or more strictly the semi-axis) of its orbit is
proportional to the square of the
that the orbit for state

number of the

state, so

No. 30 is 900 times larger than the orbit for the normal atom No. i. The diameter of the orbit in No. 30 is approximately a ten-thousandth of a millimetre. One inference can be drawn immediately the spectrum shown in Fig. 9 was not produced in any
terrestrial laboratory.

used in

terrestrial

In the highest vacuum that can be spectroscopy the atoms are still too

crowded to leave room for an orbit so large as this. The source must be matter so tenuous that there is vacant space for the electron to make this wide circuit without colliding with or suffering interference from other atoms.

Without entering
Fig. 9
is

into further detail

we

can conclude that

highest

vacuum known on

a spectrum of matter more rarefied than the the earth. 2

It is interesting to notice that,

whereas throughout most

of the picture the lines are shown on a dark background, at the extreme left the background is bright ; the change occurs just at the point where the Balmer Series comes to

an end.

and
1

it is

This background of light is also due to hydrogen caused in the following way. The swollen atoms

i) has only one planet electron. ' ' a the flash of Fig. 9 spectrum of the sun's chromophotograph sphere taken by Mr. Davidson in Sumatra at the eclipse of 14 January
3 is

Hydrogen (being element No.

1926..

Spectral Series
in state

No. 30 or thereabouts are perilously near the

bursting-point, so it is natural that along with them there should be atoms which have overstepped the limit and
burst.

They have

lost their planet electrons

and are

occupied in catching in order to wrench

new ones. Just as energy is required

away an
electron

from an atom, so

there will be superfluous energy to be got rid of when the atom tames a wild electron. This superfluous energy
is

radiated

and forms the bright background

referred to.

Without entering
see that
it is

into technicalities of the theory, we can appropriate that this light from the burst

atoms should appear in the spectrum immediately beyond

the lines from the

most swollen atoms, since bursting

this

is

a sequel to overswelling.

Whilst you have

before you
I

photograph of the Balmer Series

may take the opportunity of recounting the history of another famous series. In some of the hottest stars a related series of lines known as the Pickering Series
was discovered in 1896. This is spaced on precisely the same regular plan, but the lines fall half way between the
lines of the

Balmer

Series

not exactly half

way because

of the gradually diminishing intervals from right to left, but just where one would naturally interpolate lines in

number whilst keeping the spacing Unlike the Balmer Series, the Pickering Series regular. had never been produced in any laboratory. What element was causing it ? The answer seemed obvious ;
order to double their
surely these two related series, one fitting half way between the other, must belong to different modes of vibration of the

same atom, hydrogen. That seemed to be the but we have learned only possible answer at the time more about atoms since then. We may fairly argue that the ideal simplicity of these two series indicates that they
;

62

Some

TZ^ecent Investigations

are produced by an atomic system of the simplest possible type, viz. an atom with one planet electron ; but it must

be remembered that

this condition only tells us

is.

how

the

atom

is clothed^

not what the atom

The helium atom

(or, for that

matter, the

uranium atom) can on occasion

masquerade in the scanty attire of the hydrogen atom. Normal helium has two planet electrons ; but if one of
these

becomes hydrogen-like and copies the simple hydrogen system on a different scale. It is signiis

lost,

it

ficant that the

hottest stars
tron.

Pickering Series appears only in the very in conditions likely to cause loss of an elec-

between hydrogen and hydrogenlike helium is firstly the difference of atomic weight the helium nucleus is four times as massive. But this scarcely
difference
;

The

affects the

spectrum because both nuclei are so massive

that they remain almost unshaken by the dancing electron. Secondly, the helium nucleus has a double electric charge ;
this is equivalent to substituting in the vibrating

system a controlling spring of twice the strength. What can be more natural than that the doubled force of the spring should double the number of lines in the series without
otherwise altering its plan ? In this way Professor Bohr discovered the real origin of the Pickering Series ; it is

due

to ionized helium, not to hydrogen. 1

The heavy
remains

nucleus, whether of hydrogen or helium, almost unshaken by the atomic vibration

almost, but not quite.

At a later

date Professor A. Fowler

succeeded in reproducing the Pickering Series in the laboratory and was able to measure the lines with much
1

The helium line in

is

the Ring Nebula

mented
history.

not a
It

member of the

Pickering Series, but

was first supposed to reproduced by Fowler terrestrially and finally discovered by Bohr to belong to helium.

on which we have already comit has had the same be due to hydrogen, later (in 1912) in a mixture of helium and hydrogen,

Spectral Series
;

63

could be achieved in stellar spectrogreater accuracy than scopy he was then able to show from his measures that
It was a delicate is not quite irresponsive. double-star problem transferred to the interior of the atom ; or perhaps a closer analogy would be the mutual

the nucleus

influence of the sun

and Jupiter, because Jupiter, having a thousandth of the mass of the sun, disturbs it to about the same extent that the light electron disturbs the hydrogen nucleus. Ionized helium is a faithful copy of the
*
'

hydrogen atom (on the altered scale) in everything except the shake ; the shake is less than in hydrogen because the helium nucleus is still more massive and rock-like.

The

difference of shake throws the Pickering Series of helium and the Balmer Series of hydrogen slightly out

of step with respect to one another ; and this misfit Professor Fowler was able to

by measuring

make a very

accurate determination of the shake and therefore of the

mass of the electron.

is

In this

way

the mass of the electron

found
;

to

nucleus

be i/i, 844th of the mass of the hydrogen this agrees well with the mass found by other
is

methods, and the determination in accuracy to any of them.

probably not inferior

so the clue first picked up in stars 500 light years away, followed in turn by the theoretical and the experimental physicist, leads in the end to the smallest of all

And

things known.

The Cloud

in

Space

Having already considered the densest matter in the universe, we now turn to consider the rarest.
In spite of great improvements in the art of exhausting vessels we are still a long way from a real

producing
before

vacuum.

The atoms

in a

vacuum tube

it is

ex-

64

Some

T(ecent Investigations

hausted muster a formidable number containing about twenty digits. High exhaustion means knocking off five or six noughts at the end of that number ; and the most
strenuous efforts to knock off one more nought seem a mere nibbling at the ludicrously ineffective huge

number that must remain. Some of the stars are extremely

rarefied.

Betelgeuse,

for example, has a density about a thousandth that of air.

We
the

it not contrasted with of greater vacuosity surrounding space. Nowadays physicists have no difficulty in producing a better vacuum than Betelgeuse ; but in earlier times this star

should

call it

vacuum were

much

would have been regarded at a vacuum.

as a very creditable attempt

outer parts of a star, and especially the light appendages such as the solar chromosphere and corona,

The

reach

much

lower densities.

Also the gaseous nebulae

are, as their appearance suggests, extremely tenuous. When there is space enough to put a pin's head beween adjacent atoms we can begin to talk about a real vacuum.'
'

At the
tion
is

centre of the Orion nebula that degree of rarefac-

probably reached and surpassed. nebula has no definite boundary and the density There is reason to think that the gradually fades off.

fading off becomes slow at great distances. Before we pass entirely out of the sphere of one nebula we enter the sphere of another, so that there is always some residual
density in interstellar space,
believe that, reasoning from the tailing off of the nebulae, we are in a position to make an estimate of the
I

amount of matter remaining unaggregated in space* An ordinary region where there is no observable nebulosity within the limits of the is the highest vacuum existing

The Cloud
stellar

in Space
still

65

system at

least

but there
It

remains about one

atom depends on our point of view whether we regard this as an amazing fullness or an amazing emptiness of space. Perhaps it is the fullness that impresses us most. The atom can find no place of wherever it real solitude within the system of the stars to a not more than an inch away. colleague goes it can nod Let us approach the same subject from a different
in every cubic inch.
;

Story of Algol I referred to the way in which we measure the velocity of rotation of the sunpoint the spectroscope first on one limb of the sun and then

angle. In the

'

'

We

on the

other.

Taking any one of the dark

find that
it

lines of the

between the spectrum, two observations. This tells us that the material which imprinted the line was moving towards or away from us with different velocities in the two observations. That is what we expected to find ; the rotation of the sun makes solar material move towards us on one side of the disk and away from us on the other side. But there are a few dark lines which do not show this change. They are in just the same position whether we observe them on the east or on the west of the sun. Clearly these cannot originate on the sun. They have been imprinted on the light after it left the sun and before it reached our teleWe have thus ^discovered a medium occurring scope. somewhere between the sun and our telescope ; and as
has shifted a
little

we

some of the

recognized as belonging to oxygen, we can infer that it is a medium containing oxygen. This seems to be the beginning of a great discovery,

lines are

happens that we were already aware of a medium containing oxygen lying somewhere between our telescope and the sun. It is a medium
but
it

ends in a bathos.

It

66

Some

I{ecent Investigations

essential to our existence.

is

The
'

terrestrial

atmosphere

responsible for the

'

fixed

lines seen in the sun's

spectrum.
Just as the spectroscope can
turning round
tell

us that the sun

is

familiar to us (a fact already

from watching

the surface markings), so it can tell us that certain stars are wandering round an orbit, and therefore are under the influence of a second star which may or may not be

But here again we sometimes find fixed Therefore lines which do not change with the others. and the there exists somewhere between the star telescope a stationary medium which imprints these lines on the light This time it is not the earth's atmosphere. The lines belong to two elements, calcium and sodium, neither
'

visible itself.

of which occur in the atmosphere. Moreover, the calcium is in a smashed state, having lost one of its electrons, and
the conditions in our atmosphere are not such as would cause this loss. There seems to be no doubt that the

medium

containing the sodium and ionized calcium

and

no doubt many other elements which do not show themselves is separate from the earth and the star. It is the
of interstellar space already mentioned. Light has to pass one atom per cubic inch all the way from the
fullness
star to the earth,
its
c
'

and

it

will pass quite

enough atoms

during journey of many hundred billion miles to imprint these dark lines on its spectrum.
a rival interpretation. It was thought that the lines were produced in a cloud attached to the
star

At first there was

forming a kind of aureole round it. The two components travel in orbits round each other, but their orbital motion need not disturb a diffuse medium filling and sur-

rounding the combined system. This was a very reasonable suggestion, but it could be put to the test. The test

The Cloud
was again
velocity.

in Space
either

Although

67 component can move

and fro within the surrounding cloud of and calcium sodium, it is clear that its average approach to us or recession from us taken over a long time must agree with that of the calcium and sodium if the star is not to leave its halo behind. Professor Plaskett with the
periodically to

72-inch reflector at the Dominion Observatory in British Columbia carried out this test. He found that the secular
or average rate of approach of the star z was in general quite different from the rate shown by the fixed calcium

or sodium lines.

fixed lines could not be an

Clearly the material responsible for the appendage of the star since it

was not keeping pace with it. Plaskett went farther and showed that whereas the stars themselves had all sorts of individual velocities, the material of the fixed lines had the same or nearly the same velocity in all parts of the sky, as though it were one continuous medium throughout interstellar space. I think there can be no doubt that this research demonstrates the existence of a cosmic cloud
system. The fullness of interstellar space becomes a fact of observation and no longer a

pervading the

stellar

theoretical conjecture.

The system

of the stars

is

floating in

an ocean

not

merely an ocean of space, not merely an ocean of ether, but an ocean that is so far material that one atom or thereIt is a placid ocean currents ; probably exist, but they are of a minor character and do not attain the high speeds commonly possessed by the stars.

abouts occurs in each cubic inch.

without

much

relative

motion

Many

one or two.

points of interest arise, but I will only touch on are the calcium atoms ionized? In

Why

1 This, of course, is found from the other lines of the spectrum which genuinely belong to the star and shift to and fro as it describes its orbit.

68

T^ecent Investigations the calm of interstellar space we seem to have passed away from the turmoil which smashed the calcium atoms
in the interior of a star
;

Some

so at

first it

seems

difficult to

understand
complete.

why

the atoms in the cloud should not be

However, even in the depths of space the because there is' breaking-up of the atom continues across and some of the space, always starlight passing light-waves are quite powerful enough to wrench a first or second electron away from the calcium atom. It is one of the most curious discoveries of modern physics
;

that
it

when a

light-wave

really suffers

power.

What

is attenuated by spreading, what from is laziness rather than actual loss of is weakened is not the power but the
it

probability that
it is

will display the power. capable of bursting an atom still retains the

light-wave

power when

attenuated a millionfold by spreading; only it is a million times more sparing in the exercise of the power. To put it another way? an atom exposed to the attenuated

on the average have to wait a million times longer before a wave chooses to explode it; but the explosion when it does occur will be of precisely the same strength however great the attenuation. This is entirely unlike the behaviour of water-waves ; a wave which is at
waves
will

strong enough to capsize a boat will, after spreading, become too weak. It is more like machine-gun fire which is more likely to miss a given object at greater distance but is
first

equally destructive
to (the

if it hits.

quantum property) is Thus in interstellar space

property here referred the deepest mystery of light.

electrons are
still

The

being torn

from calcium atoms, only very infrequently. The other side of the question is the rate of repair, and in this connexion the low density of the cosmic cloud is the deciding The atom has so few opportunities for repair. factor.

in Space 69 the atom meets an electron only Roving through space about once a month, and it by no means follows that it
will capture the first

The Cloud

one

it

meets.

infrequent smashing the atoms ionized. The smashed state of the atoms inside

will suffice to

Consequently very keep the majority of

a star can be compared to the delapidation of a house visited by a tornado ; the smashed state in interstellar
space
a dilapidation due to ordinary wear and tear coupled with excessive slackness in making repairs. calculation indicates that most of the calcium atoms
is

in interstellar space have lost two electrons ; these atoms do not interfere with the light and give no visible spec-

trum.

The

'

fixed lines

are produced

by atoms tem-

state of repair with only one electron porarily in a better missing ; they cannot amount at any moment to more

than one-thousandth of the whole number, but even so they will be sufficiently numerous to produce the observed
absorption.

We
cold.

It is

generally think of interstellar space as excessively quite true that any thermometer placed there

would show a temperature only about 3 above the absoif it were capable of registering so low a readlute zero

Compact matter such as a thermometer, or even matter which from the ordinary standpoint is regarded as highly diffuse, falls to this low temperature. But the rule
ing.

does not apply to matter as rarefied as the interstellar cloud. Its temperature is governed by other considerations,

and it will probably be not much below the surface-temperature of the hottest stars, say 1 5,000. Interstellar space at the same time excessively cold and decidedly hot. 1
1

is

As the word temperature is sometimes used with new-fangled meanings,

that
1

may add

5,000

is

speeds of the atoms and electrons

the temperature corresponding to the individual the old-fashioned gas-temperature.

The Sun's Chromosphere

and now we are back in the outer parts of the sun. Fig. 10 I shows one of the huge prominence flames which from time to time shoot out of the sun. The flame in this picture was about 120,000 miles high. It went through great changes of form and disappeared in not much more than twenty-four hours. This was rather an exceptional specimen. Smaller flames occur commonly enough ; it seems that the curious black marks in Fig. I, often looking like rifts, are really

Once again we

shift the scene,

prominences seen in projection against the still brighter background of the\sun. The flames consist of calcium,
v

hydrogen, and several other elements. are concerned not so much with the prominences as with the layer from which they spring. The ordinary

We

atmosphere of the sun terminates rather abruptly, but above it there is a deep though very rarefied layer called the chromosphere consisting of a few selected elements
not on the top of the sun's atmosphere, but on the sunbeams. The art of riding a sunbeam is evidently rather difficult, because only a few

which are able

to float

float,

of the elements have the necessary

is

skill.

The most expert

is

calcium.

The
at
it,

light

and nimble hydrogen atom

fairly
it

good

but the ponderous calcium atom does

best.

layer of calcium least 5,000 miles thick.

suspended on the sunlight is at can observe it best when the main part of the sun is hidden by the moon in an eclipse ; but the spectroheliograph enables us to study it

The

We

at the total eclipse

Photograph taken by E. T. Cottingham and the author in Principe of 29 May 1919.

The Sun
to

some extent without

Chromosphere an eclipse. On the

71

whole

it is

as the prominence flames steady and quiescent, although, be blown to liable is sky-high by violent outshow, it
bursts.

The conclusions about the calcium chromosphere

series

going to describe rest on a researches by Professor Milne.

that
I

am

of remarkable

How
bility

does an atom float on a sunbeam?

depends on the pressure of light to

The possiwhich we have

The sunlight travelling outalready referred (p. 26). wards carries a certain outward momentum ; if the atom
absorbs the light it absorbs also the momentum and so receives a tiny impulse outwards. This impulse enables
it

to recover the

ground

it

was losing

in falling towards

the sun.

The atoms in the chromosphere are kept floating

little and the from of the then ascending again Only impulse light. those atoms which can absorb large quantities of sunlight

above the sun like tiny shuttlecocks, dropping a

in proportion to their weight will be able to float successmust look rather closely into the mechanism fully.

We

of absorption of the calcium atom excels the other elements.

if

we

are to see

why

it

ordinary calcium atom has two rather loose elecits attendant system ; the chemists express this by saying that it is a divalent element, the two loose electrons being especially important in determining the
trons in
*

The

Each of these electrons possesses a mechanism for absorbing light. But under the conditions prevailing in the chromosphere one of the electrons
chemical behaviour.
is

broken away, and the calcium atoms are in the same smashed state that gives rise to the fixed lines in the
*
*

interstellar cloud.
itself

The chromospheric calcium

it

ports loose electron remaining.

on what sunlight

thus supcan gather in with the one To part with this would be

72
fatal
;

light,

^Recent Investigations the atom would no longer be able to absorb sunand would drop like a stone. It is true that after
lost there are still
;

Some

two electrons are

eighteen remaining but these are held so tightly that sunlight has no effect on them and they can only absorb shorter waves which the sun does not radiate in any quantity. The atom therefore could only save itself if
it

restored

its

main absorbing
;

mechanism by picking up a passing

it

electron

it

has

little

chance of catching one in the rarefied chromosphere, so

would probably fall all the way to the sun's surface. There are two ways in which light can be absorbed. In one the atom absorbs so greedily that it bursts, and the electron scurries off with the surplus energy. That is the process of ionization which was shown in Fig. 5.
Clearly this cannot be the process of absorption in the chromosphere because, as we have seen, the atom cannot
afford to lose the electron.

In the other method of

absorption the atom is not quite so greedy. It does not To accommodate the extra burst, but it swells visibly.

energy the electron

is

tossed

up

into a higher orbit.

This

method

called excitation (cf. p. 59). After remaining in the excited orbit for a little while the electron comes
is

again spontaneously. The process has to be repeated 20,000 times a second in order to keep the atom

down

balanced in the chromosphere.

The

point

we

are leading

up

to

is,

Why should calcium

It

be able to

has always seemed odd that a rather heavy element (No. 20 in order of atomic weight) should be found in these uppermost regions where one would expect only the lightest atoms.

float better

than other elements ?

We see now that the special skill

to toss

is to be able a an electron times second without ever 20,000 up making the fatal blunder of dropping it. That is not easy

demanded

The Sun

Chromosphere
z

73

even for an atom. Calcium scores because it possesses a possible orbit of excitation only a little way above the normal orbit so that it can juggle the electron between
these two orbits without serious risk.

With most

other

is relatively much higher ; to reach this orbit is not so the energy required very much less than the energy required to detach the electron alto-

elements the

first

available orbit

so that we cannot very well have a continuous gether source of light capable of causing the orbit-jumps without sometimes overdoing it and causing loss of the electron.
;

It is the wide difference between the energy of excitation and the energy of ionization of calcium which is so the sun is very rich in ether-waves capable favourable of causing the first, and is almost lacking in ether-waves
;

capable of causing the second.

i

average time occupied by each performance is /2o,oooth of a second. This is divided into two periods.
is

The

a period during which the atom is patiently for a light-wave to run into it and throw up the waiting electron. There is another period during which the electron revolves steadily in the higher orbit before deciding

There

to

to calculate

come down again. Professor Milne has shown how from observations of the chromosphere the

durations of both these periods. The first period of on the the sun's radiation. of waiting depends strength

But we focus attention especially on the second period, which is more interesting because it is a definite property of the calcium atom, having nothing to do with local circumstances. Although we measure it for ions in the sun's chromosphere, the same result must apply to calcium ions anywhere. Milne's result is that an electron tossed into
1

We refer to

calcium as

it

occurs in the chromosphere,

i.

e.

with one

electron missing.

74

Some Decent Investigations

the higher orbit remains there for an average time of a hundred-millionth of a second before it spontaneously

drops back again.

it

makes

that during this brief time something like a million revolutions in the upper
I

may add

orbit.

Perhaps

this

is

a piece of information that you were

not particularly burning to know. I do not think it can be called interesting except to those who make a hobby

of atoms.

But

it

does seem to

me

interesting that

we

should have to turn a telescope and spectroscope on the sun to find out this homely property of a substance which

we handle

daily.

It is
.

a kind of measurement of immense

importance in physics

The theory of these atomic jumps

;

comes under the quantum theory which is still the greatest and it is greatly in need of puzzle of physical science on observation from just such a matter as this. guidance We can imagine what a sensation would be caused if, after a million revolutions round the sun, a planet made
a jump of this kind.

How eagerly we should try to deter!

mine the average interval at which such jumps occurred The atom is rather like a solar system, and it is not the less interesting because it is on a smaller scale. There is no prospect at present of measuring the time of relaxation of the excited calcium atom in a different way. It has, however, been found possible to determine the corresponding time for one or two other kinds of atoms by laboratory experiments. It is not necessary that the time should be at all closely the same for different elements ; but laboratory measurements for hydrogen
also give the period as a hundred-millionth of a second, so there is no fault to find with the astronomical deter-

mination for calcium.

The

excitation of the calcium

atom

is

performed by

The Sun
light of

Chromosphere

75

two particular wave-lengths, and the atoms in the chromosphere support themselves by robbing sunlight of It is true that after a hundredthese two constituents. millionth of a second a relapse comes and the atom has but in re-emitting to disgorge what it has appropriated the light it is as likely to send it inwards as outwards, so
;

through mantle of calcium the spectrum shows gaps or dark lines at the two wave-lengths concerned. These lines are
this

that the outflowing sunlight suffers more loss recovers. Consequently, when we view the sun

than

it

denoted by the
black,

letters

H and

K.

They

are not entirely

that

and

it is

important to
lines,

measure the residual light

at the centre

of the

because

we know
;

it

must

have an intensity just strong enough to keep calcium atoms floating under solar gravity as soon as the out-

weakened that it can support no more flowing light atoms it can suffer no further depredations, and so it
is

so

emerges into outer space with this limiting intensity. The measurement gives numerical data for working out the constants of the calcium atom including the time of
relaxation

mentioned above.
at the top

of the chromosphere rest which has light passed through the below the full sunlight would blow them away. has deduced a consequence which may perhaps

The atoms
;

on the
screen

weakened

Milne
have a

any case is curiously interesting. Owing to the Doppler effect a moving atom absorbs a rather different wave-length from a stationary atom ; so that if for any cause an atom moves away from the sun it will support itself on light which is a little to one side of the deepest absorption. This light, being more intense than that which provided a balance, will make the atom

practical application in the ' * new stars or novae, and in

phenomena of explosion of

76

Some

T^ecent Investigations
atom's

recede faster.

absorption will thus gradually draw clear of the absorption of the screen below. Speaking rather metaphorically, the atom is balanced precariously on the

The

own

liable to topple off into the full sunlight

and it is on one side. Apparently the speed of the atom should go on increasing
line

summit of the absorption

until

has to climb an' adjacent absorption line (due perhaps to some other element) if the line is too intense to be surmounted the atom will stick part-way up, the veloit
;

remaining fixed at a particular value. These later inferences may be rather far-fetched, but at any rate the argument indicates that there is likely to be an escape of
city

calcium into outer space. By Milne's theory we can calculate the whole weight Its mass is about of the sun's calcium chromosphere.

300 million
such a

tons.

One

scarcely expects to

meet with

astronomy. It is less than the handled our tonnage English railways each year. by I think that solar observers must feel rather hoaxed when they consider the labour that they have been induced to
trifling figure in

But science does not despise trifles. And astronomy can still be instructive even when, for once in a way, it descends to commonplace numbers.
spend on
this airy nothing.

The Story of Betelgeuse

This story has not much to do with atoms, and scarcely comes under the title of these lectures but we have had occasion to allude to Betelgeuse as the famous example of a star of great size and low density, and its history is closely associated with some of the developments that we
;

are studying.

No

star has a disk large

enough

to

be seen with our

present telescopes.

We can calculate that a lens or mirror

The Story of Betelgeuse

77

of about 20 feet aperture would be needed to show traces even of the largest star disk. Imagine for a moment that

we have constructed an instrument of this order of size. Which would be the most hopeful star to try it on ?
Perhaps Sirius suggests
itself
first,

since

it

is

the

But Sirius has a white-hot brightest star in the sky. surface radiating very intensely, so that it is not necessary that it should have a wide expanse. Evidently we should
prefer a star which, although bright, has its surface in a feebly glowing condition ; then the apparent brightness must be due to large area. need, then, a star which

We

is

both red and bright.

It is

this condition.

Betelgeuse seems best to satisfy the brighter of the two shoulder-stars

of Orion
tion.

the only conspicuous red star in the constella-

There are one or two rivals, including Antares, which might possibly be preferred but we cannot go far wrong in turning our new instrument on Betelgeuse
;

in the

hope of finding the largest or nearly the largest

notice that I have paid no attention to the It happens that distance is not

star disk.

You may
relevant.
It

distances of these stars.

would be relevant

if

we were

the star of greatest actual dimensions ; considering the star which presents the largest apparent 1 If we were disk, i.e. covers the largest area of the sky.
at twice our present distance from the sun, we should receive only one-quarter as much light; but the sun

trying to find but here we are

would look half its present area would be one-quarter.

1

size linearly,

and

its

apparent

Thus

the light per unit area

c '

an awkwardness in applying the term apparent to somebut, remembering that we have armed ourthing too small to be seen selves with an imaginary telescope capable of showing the disk, the meaning
is
;

There

will be clear.

78
of disk
is

Some

^I^ecent Investigations

unaltered by distance. Removing the sun to greater and greater distance its disk will appear smaller but glowing not less intensely, until it is so far away that
the disk cannot be discriminated.
spectroscopic examination we know that Betelgeuse has a surface temperature about 35000. temperature

By

of 3,000

is

not unattainable in the laboratory, and

we

know

by experiment and partly by theory what is the radiating power of a surface in this state. Thus it is not difficult to an how area of the sky large compute Betelgeuse must cover in order that the area multiplied
partly

by the radiating power may give the observed brightness

of Betelgeuse.
miles away.

The area

apparent size of Betelgeuse

turns out to be very small. is that of a half-penny

this calculation is

The
fifty

Using a more scientific measure, the dia0-051

meter of Betelgeuse predicted by of a second of arc.

No

existing telescope can

show

so small a disk.

Let
in

us consider briefly
particular

how

a telescope forms an image

how it reproduces that detail and contrast of darkness which betrays that we are looking at and light a disk or a double star and not a blur emanating from a
single point.

power

it is

This optical performance is called resolving not primarily a matter of magnification but
is

of aperture, and the limit of resolution the size of aperture of the telescope.

determined by

image the telescope must not only bring light where there ought to be light, but it must also bring darkness where there ought to be darkness. The latter task is the more difficult. Light-waves tend to spread in all directions, and the telescope cannot prevent individual wavelets from straying on to parts of
create a sharply defined

To

the picture where they have no business.

But

it

has this

The Story of TSetelgeuse

79

one remedy for every trespassing wavelet it must send a second wavelet by a slightly longer or shorter route so
as to arrive in a

cancel

its effect.

phase opposite to the first wavelet and This is where the utility of a wide aperdifference of route of

ture arises

by affording a wider

the individual wavelets, so that those the aperture

may

be retarded

from one part of relatively to and interfere

with those from another part.

furnish light ; it ness in the picture.

small object-glass can takes a big object-glass to furnish dark

Now we may

ask ourselves whether the ordinary cir-

cular aperture is necessarily the most efficient for giving the wavelets the required path-differences. Any deviation from a symmetrical shape is likely to spoil the
definition of the

image

to produce

The image
tell-tale

will not so closely

wings and fringes. resemble the object viewed.

to

But on the other hand we may be able

features.
It

sharpen up the
widely the

does not matter

how

object, provided that image-pattern may we can read the significance of the pattern. If we cannot reproduce a star-disk, let us try whether we can reproduce
differ

from the

something distinctive of a star-disk. A little reflection shows that we ought to improve matters by blocking out the middle of the object-glass, and using only the extreme regions on one side or the
other.

the waves

For these regions the difference of light-path of is greatest, and they are the most efficient in

furnishing the dark contrast needed to outline the image

properly.

the middle of the object-glass is not going to be used, why go to the expense of manufacturing it? are led to the idea of using two widely separated apertures,
if

But

We

each involving a comparatively small lens or mirror.

We

8o

Some

T(ecent Investigations

thus arrive at an instrument after the pattern of a rangefinder.

This instrument will not show us the disk of a star. If we look through it the main impression of the star image is very like what we should have seen with either
aperture singly
fraction rings.

surrounded by difBut looking attentively we see that this image is crossed by dark and bright bands which are produced by interference between the light-waves coming from the two apertures. At the centre of the image the waves from the two apertures arrive crest on crest since they have travelled symmetrically along equal paths accordingly there is a bright band. A very little to one side the asymmetry causes the waves to arrive crest on here there is trough, so that they cancel one another a dark band. The width of the bands decreases as the separation of the two apertures increases, and for any
a

spurious disk

'

given separation the actual width is easily calculated. Each point of the star's disk is giving rise to a diffraction image with a system of bands of this kind, but so

long as the disk is small compared with the finest detail of the diffraction image there is no appreciable blurring.
continually increase the separation of the two apertures and so make the bands narrower, there comes a time when the bright bands for one part of the disk are falling
If

we

on the dark bands for another part of the disk. The band system then becomes indistinct. It is a matter of mathematical calculation to determine the resultant effect of

summing

the band systems for each point of the disk. It can be shown that for a certain separation of the apertures the bands will disappear altogether; and beyond
this separation the

system should reappear though not

attaining

its

original sharpness.

The

complete disappear-

The Story of 'Betelgeuse

ance occurs
1

when the diameter of the star-disk is equal to width of the bands (from the centre of one the 1 times bright band to the next). As already stated, the bandwidth can be calculated from the known separation of the
observation consists in sliding apart the two apertures until the bands disappear. The diameter of the disk
is

apertures.

The

inferred at once

from

their separation
see the disk.

when

the dissize of

appearance occurred.
the disk in this

Although we measure the

way we never

We can summarize the

following way. through a telescope
pattern.
is

The image
if

principle of the method in the of a point of light seen not a point but a small diffraction
at

Hence,

we look

an extended object, say

however,
it is

Mars,
the
at

the diffraction pattern will blur the fine detail of

If,

marking on the planet. a star which is almost a

;

point,

are looking simpler to invert

we

the idea

the object, not being an ideal point, will slightly shall only blur the detail of the diffraction pattern.

We

perceive the blurring if the diffraction pattern contains detail fine enough to suffer from it. Betelgeuse on

account of

its finite
;

size

must

theoretically blur a diffrac-

tion pattern

but the ordinary diffraction disk and rings

produced with the largest telescope are too coarse to show create a diffraction image with finer detail by this.

We

using two apertures.

detail as fine as

Theoretically

we can make

the

please by the two apertures. The method accordingly consists in widening the separation until the pattern becomes fine

we

increasing the separation of

enough to be perceptibly blurred by Betelgeuse. For a smaller star-disk the same effect of blurring would not
be apparent until the detail had been made further separation of the apertures.
still

finer

by

82

Some

T^ecent Investigations

This method was devised long ago by Professor Michelson, but it was only in 1920 that he tried it on
a large scale with a great 2o-foot
reflector at

beam across the

Observatory. attempts Pease and Anderson were able to show that the
bright and dark bands for Betelgeuse disappeared when The deduced the apertures were separated 10 feet.

Mount Wilson

loo-inch After many

0*045 f a secon d of al*c in good enough agreement with the predicted value (p. 78). Only five or six stars have disks large enough to be measured with this
diameter
is

instrument.

It is

understood that the construction of a

50-foot interferometer is contemplated ; but even this will be insufficient for the great majority of the stars.

We

are fairly confident that the method of calculation first described gives the correct diameters of the stars, but

confirmation by

Michelson's more direct method of

measurement

To

always desirable. infer the actual size of the star from

is

its

apparent

diameter, rather a remote star and

we must know
its

the distance.

Betelgeuse is distance cannot be measured

very accurately, but the uncertainty will not change the general order of magnitude of the results* The diameter
is

about 300 million miles. Betelgeuse is large enough to contain the whole orbit of the earth inside it, perhaps even the orbit of Mars. Its volume is about fifty million times the volume of the sun.

no direct way of learning the mass of Betelgeuse because it has no companion near it whose motion We can, however, deduce a mass it might influence. from the mass-brightness relation in Fig. 7. This gives the mass equal to 35 x sun. If the result is right, Betelgeuse is one of the most massive stars but, of course, not masis

There

sive in proportion to its bulk.

The mean

density

is

about

The Story of Betelgeuse

one-millionth of the density of water, or not than one-thousandth of the density of air. 1

83

much more

one way in which we might have inferred that Betelgeuse is less dense than the sun, even if we had had no grounds of theory or analogy for estimating its mass.

There

is

According to the modern theory of gravitation, a globe of the size of Betelgeuse and of the same mean density as

would have some remarkable properties Firstly, owing to the great intensity of its gravitation, and any rays shot out light would be unable to escape would fall back again to the star by their own weight.
the sun
:

Secondly, the Einstein shift (used to test the density of the Companion of Sirius) would be so great that the

spectrum would be shifted out of existence. Thirdly, mass produces a curvature of space, and in
this case the curvature

close

up round

so great that space would that is to the star, leaving us outside

last consideration, it
is

would be

say, nowhere.

Except for the

seems rather a pity

that the density of Betelgeuse

It is

so low.

now

tant adjunct to the physical laboratory

well realized that the stars are a very impora sort of high-

temperature annex where the behaviour of matter can be studied under greatly extended conditions. Being

an astronomer, I naturally put the connexion somewhat differently and regard the physical laboratory as a lowtemperature station attached to the stars. It is the laboratory conditions which should be counted abnormal. Apart
below that of air have been found for some of the Algol an by entirely different land of investigation, and also for some of the Cepheid variables by still another method. There are also many other examples of stars of bulk comparable with that of Betelgeuse.
1

Densities

variables

1{ecent Investigations from the interstellar cloud which is at the moderate temperature of about 15,000, I suppose that nine-tenths of the matter of the universe is above 1 ,0005000. Under ordinary conditions you will understand my use of the

84

Some

word

matter has rather simple properties. But there are in the universe exceptional regions with temperature not far removed from the absolute zero, where the physical
properties of matter acquire great complexity ; the ions surround themselves with complete electron systems and

become the atoms of terrestrial experience. Our earth is one of these chilly places and here the strangest complications can arise. Perhaps strangest of all, some of these complications can meet together and speculate on the
significance of the

whole scheme.

LECTURE

III

THE AGE OF THE STARS

WE
tempted
life

have seen that spatially the scale of man is about midway between the atom and the star. I am
to

a similar comparison as regards time. The span of the life of a man comes perhaps midway in scale between the life of an excited atom (p. 74) and the

make

of a

star.
I

For those who

of a star

insist

on greater accuracy
modify
this a little.

though

would not
life

like to claim accuracy for present

I will

estimates of the

As

regards mass, man is rather too near to the atom and a stronger claimant for the midway position would be the hippopotamus. As regards time, man's three score years

and ten

is

little

too near to the stars

and

it

would be

better to substitute a butterfly.

There
have

is

one serious moral in

this fantasy.

We

shall

of time which appall our imagination. fear to make such drafts on eternity. And yet the vastness of the time-scale of stellar evolution is less
to consider periods

We

remote from the scale of

experience than is the minuteness of the time-scale of the processes studied in

the atom.

human

Our approach

to the

age of the

stars

and certain incidental problems

will

be devious, detain us on the way.

will

'

Pulsating Stars

The
Algol,

star S
its

Cephei

is

one of the variable

stars.

Like

fluctuating light sends us a message.

is

But the

message when it is decoded message from Algol.

Let

not in the least like the

me

say at once that experts differ as to the inter-

86

The *Age of the Stars

This
is

pretation of the message of 8 Cephei. place to argue the matter, or to explain

rival interpretations

not the

why

think that

you what

is

cannot be accepted. I can only tell to the best of my belief the correct story.
follow was suggested by
latter in particular

The interpretation which I Plummer and Shapley. The

made

it

very convincing, and subsequent developments have, I I would not, however, think, tended to strengthen it. claim that all doubt is banished.

Algol turned out to be a pair of stars very close together which from time to time eclipse one another ; S Cephei
is

a single star which pulsates. It is a globe which swells and contracts symmetrically with a regular period of 5i days. And as the globe swells and contracts causing

great changes of pressure and temperature in the interior, so the issuing stream of light rises and falls in intensity

and varies also in quality or colour. There is no question of eclipses the light signals are not in the form of dots and dashes ; and in any case the change of colour shows that there is a real change in the physical condition of the source of the light. But at first explanations always assumed that two stars were concerned, and aimed at connecting the physical changes with an orbital motion. For instance, it was suggested that the principal star in going round its orbit brushed through thus a resisting medium which heated its front surface
;
'

'

'

the light of the star varied according as the heated front surface or cooler rear surface was presented towards us.

The

collapsed because found that there is literally no room for two stars. supposed orbit had been worked out in the usual
orbital explanation has

now

it is

The
way

from spectroscopic measurements of velocity of approach and recession later we began to learn more about the
;

Pulsating Stars
true size of stars, first

87
(for

by

calculation,

and afterwards

It turned out that a few stars) by direct measurement. the star was big and the orbit small ; and the second star if it existed would have to be placed inside the principal
star.

This overlapping of the

hypothesis,

stars is a reductio

ad

absur-

dum of the binary

and some other explanation

must be found. What had been taken to be the approach and recession of the star as a whole was really the approach and recession of the surface as it heaved up and down with the S Cephei are diffuse pulsation. The stars which vary like stars enormously larger than the sun, and the total displacement measured amounts to only a fraction of the There is therefore no need to assume a star's radius.
bodily displacement of the star (orbital motion) ; the measures follow the oscillation of that part of the star's
surface presented towards us. The decision that Cephei
is

a single star and not

double has one immediate consequence. It means that the period of 5^ days is intrinsic in the star and is therefore one of the clues to its physical condition. It is a free period, not a forced period. It is important to appreciate

the significance of this. The number of sunspots fluctuates from a maximum to minimum and back to maxi-

mum

in a period of

about

ii years

although

not yet understand the reason for this

realize that this period
is

we do fluctuation, we

something characteristic of the sun in its present state and would change if any notable change happened to the sun. At one time, however, there was some speculation as to whether the fluctuation of the sunspots might not be caused by the revolution of the
planet Jupiter, which has a period not so very different ; if that explanation had been tenable the nj-year period

88

The <Age of the Stars

would have been something forced on the sun from without and would teach us nothing as to the properties of
the sun
itself.

Having convinced

ourselves that the light-

period of 8 Cephei is a free period of a single star, belonging to it in the same way that a particular note belongs to a tuning-fork, we can accept it as a valuable
indicator of the constancy (or otherwise) of the star's physical condition.

In

stellar

astronomy we usually

can determine our data

brightness,
I

&c.

very happy if we parallax, radius, mass, absolute to within 5 per cent. ; but the measurefeel

ment of a period
believe that the

offers

chances of far superior accuracy.

in the

most accurately known quantity

whole of science (excluding pure mathematics) is the moon's mean period, which is commonly given to twelve S Cephei can be found significant figures. The period of to six significant figures at least. By fastening an observable period to the intrinsic conditions of a star we have secured an indicator sensitive enough to show extremely

small changes. You will now guess why I am approach* * ing the age of the stars through the Cepheid variables.

Up

to the present they are the only stars

known

to carry

a sensitive indicator,

by which we might hope

to test the

rate of evolutionary change. believe that 8 Cephei like other stars has condensed out of a nebula, and that

We

the condensation and contraction are

still

continuing.

No

one would expect

to detect the contraction

if

determinations of the radius even

;

by our rough continued for a

hundred years if an intrinsic period measurable to i part in 10,000,000 shows no change in a century. It does not greatly matter whether or not we underbut the evolution
stand the nature of this intrinsic period.
If a star con-

must indeed be slow

^Pulsating Stars
tracts,

89

the period of pulsation, the period of rotation, or any other free period associated with it, will alter. If you the rival interpretations of the prefer to follow any of S message of Cephei, you can make the necessary alterations in the

wording of

my

argument, but the general

verdict as to the rate of progress of evolution will be Only if you detach the period from the star

unchanged.
itself

by going back to the old double star interpretation but I do not think any of will the argument collapse the rival interpreters propose to do that.
;

It is

not surprising that these pulsating stars should

be regarded with special interest. Ordinary stars must be viewed respectfully like the objects in glass cases in

museums

our fingers are itching to pinch them and test

Pulsating stars are like those fascinating models in the Science Museum provided with a button
their resilience.

which can be pressed to set the machinery in motion. To be able to see, the machinery of a star throbbing with activity is most instructive for the development of our
knowledge.

The
first

theory of a steady star, which was described in the lecture, can be extended to pulsating stars ; and we

can calculate the free period of pulsation for a star of

assigned mass and density. You will remember that we have already calculated the heat emission or brightness

and compared

it

factory test of the truth

with observation, obtaining one satisof the theory; now we can

calculate the period of pulsation and by comparing it with observation obtain another test. Owing to lack of information as to a certain constant of stellar material

there

is

an uncertainty in the calculation represented by

;

a factor of about 2

that

is

to say,

we

calculate

two

periods, one double the other, between which with any

3308

90

The Jlge of the Stars

reasonable luck the true period ought to lie. The observaThere are sixteen tional confirmation is very good.

Cepheid variables on which the test can be made ; their periods range from 13 hours to 35 days, and they all
agree with the calculated values to within the limits of accuracy expected. In a more indirect way the same confirmation
is

shown

in Fig. 7

by the

close

agreement of

the squares, representing Cepheid variables, with the theoretical curve.

The Cepheid as a

'

Standard Candle

'

Cepheid variables of the same period are closely similar A Cepheid of period 5$ days found in to one another. will be practically a universe of the any part replica of
8 Ce'phei
;

in particular

it

will

be a

star of the

same abso-

lute brightness.

by observation, and is not predicted by any part of the theory yet explored. The brightness, as we have seen, depends mainly on the mass the period, on the other hand, depends mainly on the d'ensity so that the observed relation between brightness and period involves a relation between mass and
;
;

This

is

a fact discovered

Presumably this relation signifies that for a mass there is just one special density one stage in given at which pulsathe course of condensation of the star
density.
tions are liable to occur
;

at other densities the star can

only burn steadily. This property renders the Cepheid extremely useful to astronomers. It serves as a standard candle a source of

known

light-pdwer.

In an ordinary

way you cannot

tell

the real brightness

of a light merely by looking at it. If it appears dim, that may mean either real faintness or great distance. At night time on the. sea you observe many lights whose distance

'The
and

Cepheid as a

'

Standard Candle
;

91

you cannot estimate your judgement of the real brightness may be wrong by a factor of a quintillion if you happen to mistake Arcturus for a ship's light. But among them you may notice a light which goes
real brightness

through a regular
of seconds
;

series

that tells

of changes in a certain number you that it is such-and-such a light-

house, known to project alight of so many thousand candlepower. You may now estimate with certainty how far off it provided, of course, that there is no fog intervening. So, too, when we look up at the sky, most of the lights that we see might be at any distance and have any real
is

brightness.

Even

the most refined measurements of

parallax only succeed in locating a few of the nearer But if we see a light winking in the Cepheid lights. manner with a period of $\ days, we know that it is a

8 replica of

a light of 700 sun-power. Or if the period is any other number of days we can assign the proper sun-power for that period. From this we can

Cephei and

is

judge the distance.

then

The

apparent brightness, which

is

a
;

combination of distance and true brightness, is measured it is a simple calculation to answer the question, At what distance must a light of 700 sun-power be placed in
order to give the apparent brightness observed? about interference by fog ? Careful discussions have been made, and it appears that notwithstanding the cosmical

How

cloud in interstellar space there is ordinarily no appreciable absorption or scattering of the starlight on its way to us. With the Cepheids serving as standard candles distances in the stellar universe have been surveyed far If the exceeding those reached by previous methods.
distances were merely those of the

Cepheid variables

themselves that would not be so important, but more information is yielded.

much

92
Fig.
1 1
x

The *Age of the Stars

shows a famous
star-cluster called
to

Centauri.

Amongst

the thousands of stars in the cluster no less than

76 Cepheid variables have been discovered. Each is a standard candle serving to measure the distance primarily
of itself but also incidentally of the great cluster in which
it lies.

agree wonderfully among themselves, the average deviation being less than 5 per cent. By this means Shapley found the distance of the cluster

The 76 gauges

be 20,000 light years. receive to-day were sent

to

The

from the

light messages which we cluster 20,000 years

ago.*

astronomer, more than other devotees of science, learns to appreciate the advantage of not being too near

The

the objects he

studying. The nearer stars are all right in their way, but it is a great nuisance being in the very midst of them. For each star has to be treated singly and
is

located at

its

progress is distance of this remote cluster, we secure at one scoop the distances of many thousands of stars. The distance

proper distance by elaborate measurements very laborious. But when we determine the
;

being known, the apparent magnitudes can be turned into

true magnitudes, and statistics and correlations of absolute brightness and colour can be ascertained. Even before

the distance

is

discovered

we

the stars in clusters

which

it is

can learn a great deal from impracticable to find out

from
are

less

remote

stars.

We
We
is its

can see that the Cepheids

much above

by relatively few

the average brightness and are surpassed stars. can ascertain that the brighter
period.

the Cepheid the longer

1

We

discover that

From a photograph taken at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. a For comparison, the nearest fixed star is distant 4 light years. Apart from clusters we rarely deal with distances above 2,000 light years.

The Cepheid as a

Standard Candle
1

And so on. the brightest stars of all are red. a reverse side to the picture ; the tiny points of light in the distant cluster are not the most satisfactory objects to
measure and analyse, and we could ill spare the nearer but the fact remains that there are certain lines of stars stellar investigation in which remoteness proves to be an
;

93 There is

actual advantage,

and we turn from the nearer

stars to

objects fifty thousand light years away. About 80 globular clusters are known with distances

ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 light years. Is there anything yet more remote? It has long been suspected that the spiral nebulae, * which seem to be exceedingly

numerous, are outside our

universes
stronger,
'.

stellar

system and form

island

The evidence for this has become gradually and now is believed to be decisively confirmed.

In 1924 Hubble discovered a number of Cepheid variables in the great Andromeda nebula which is the largest

and presumably one of the nearest of the spirals. As soon as their periods had been determined they were available
as standard candles to

gauge the distance of the nebula. Their apparent magnitude was much fainter than that of
the corresponding Cepheids in globular clusters, showing that they must be even more remote. Hubble has since

found the distance of one or two other spirals in the same way. With the naked eye you can see the Andromeda nebula
as a faint patch

When you look light. back 900,000 years into the past. looking
of
1

at

it

you are

One cannot always be sure that what is true of the cluster stars will be true of stars in general ; and our knowledge of the nearer stars, though
lagging behind that of the stars in clusters, does not entirely agree with this association of colour and brightness.
3

The term nebula covers

classed as spirals that are likely to

a variety of objects, and it is only the nebulae be outside our stellar system.

94
The Contraction Hypothesis
of providing sufficient supplies of energy to maintain the sun's output of light and heat has often

The problem

been debated by astronomers and others. In the last century it was shown by Helmholtz and Kelvin that the sun could maintain its heat for a very long time by continually shrinking. Contraction involves an approach or
fall

of the matter towards the centre

tential

energy
It

is

thus converted and

this

made

gravitational poavailable as

heat.

was assumed that

was the

sole resource since

no other supply capable of yielding anything like so large an amount was known. But the supply is not unlimited,

and on this hypothesis the birth of the sun must be dated not more than 20,000,000 years ago. Even at the time of which I am speaking the time-limit was found to be cramping; but Kelvin assured the geologists and biologists that they must confine their outlines of terrestrial
history within this period. About the beginning of the present century the contraction theory was in the curious position of being

Whilst few generally accepted and generally ignored. ventured to dispute the hypothesis, no one seems to have had any hesitation, if it suited him, in carrying back the history of the earth or moon to a time long before the
supposed era of the formation of the solar system. Lord Kelvin's date of the creation was treated with no more
respect than Archbishop Ussher's. The serious consequences of the hypothesis become particularly prominent when we consider the diffuse stars

of high luminosity

and squander
than the sun.

it

these are prodigal of their energy a hundred or a thousand times faster

;

The economical sun

could have subsisted

"The Contraction Hypothesis

95

on

contraction energy for 20,000,000 years, but for the high luminosity stars the limit is cut down to 100,000
its

of the naked-eye stars. Dare years. This includes most we believe that they were formed within the last 100,000
years
stars
?

Is the antiquity

of

shining? Do run their course in less time than their light takes to reach us ?

now

greater than that of the stars in the Andromeda nebula

man

feel a limitation of time-scale irksome, and ideas out explanations which are otherwise ruling plausible and attractive ; it is another thing to produce
It is

one thing to

I do not think definite evidence against the time-scale. that astronomers had in their own territory any weapon for

a direct attack on the Helmholtz-Kelvin hypothesis until the Cepheid variables supplied one. To come to figures

S Cephei emits more than 700 times as much heat as the know its mass and radius, and we can calculate sun.

We

without difficulty how fast the radius must contract in order to provide this heat. The required rate is one part in 40,000 per annum. Now Cephei was first observed
carefully in 1785, so that in the time
it

has been under

observation the radius

300
that

if the

we

must have changed by one part in contraction hypothesis is right. You remember have in S Cephei a very sensitive indicator of any
;

changes occurring in it, viz. the period of pulsation clearly change^ of the above magnitude could not occur without disturbing this indicator. Does the period show

any change ?

there is perhaps sufficient It is doubtful evidence for a slight change, but it is not more than i/2Ooth of the change demanded by the contraction
;

hypothesis.

Accepting the pulsation theory, the period should diminish 1 7 seconds every year a quantity easily detect-

96
able.

The *Age of the Stars

The
actual change
is

not more than one-tenth of

a second per year. At least during the Cepheid stage the stars are drawing on some source of energy other than
that provided

by

contraction.

On such an important question we should not like to put implicit trust in one argument alone, and we turn
to the sister sciences for other

clusive evidence.

and perhaps more conand Physical geological investigations

seem to decide definitely that the age of the earth reckoned from an epoch which by no means goes back
to
is far its beginnings as a planet greater than the Helmholtz-Kelvin estimate of the age of the solar system.

usual to lay most stress on a determination of the age of the rocks from the uranium-lead ratio of their conUranium disintegrates into lead and helium at tents.
It is

known

rate.

Since lead

is

unlike uranium in chemical

properties the two elements would not naturally be deposited together ; so that the lead found with uranium

has presumably been formed by its decomposition. 1 measuring how much lead occurs with the uranium

By we

can determine

how long ago

the uranium was deposited.

is

The age

of the older rocks

found

to

be about 1,200

million years ; lower estimates have been urged by some authorities, but none low enough to save the contraction

hypothesis.

The

sun, of course,
its

must be very much

older

than the earth and

rocks.

We
least

to require a time-scale which will allow at 10,000,000,000 years for the age of the sun ; cer-

seem

tainly

we

years.
1

It is

cannot abate our demands below 1,000,000,000 necessary to look for a more prolific source

This can be checked because uranium lead has a different atomic weight from lead not so derived. Ordinary lead is a mixture of several kinds of atoms (isotopes).

The Contraction Hypothesis

97

of energy to maintain the heat of the sun and stars through can at once narrow down the this extended period.

We

field
it

of search.

No

liberates heat in the

source of energy is of any avail unless deep interior of the star. The crux

of the problem is not merely the provision for radiation but the maintenance of the internal heat which keeps the

how

You will remember gravitating mass from collapsing. in the first lecture we had to assign a certain amount of heat at each point in the stellar interior in order to keep
the star in balance.

But the

internal heat

is

continually

running away towards the cooler outside and then escaping into space as the star's radiation. This, or its equivalent, must be put back if the star is to be kept steady
if it is

not to contract and evolve at the rate of the Kelvin

time-scale.

And
It

of the star example.

no use to put it back at the surface by bombarding the star with meteors, for
it is

the temperature-gradient, and so it would simply take the first opportunity of escaping as additional radiation. You cannot maintain

could not flow

up

a temperature-gradient by supplying heat at the bottom end. Heat must be poured in at the top end, i. e. in the

deep interior of the star. Since we cannot well imagine an extraneous source of
heat able to release itself at the centre of a star, the idea of a star picking up energy as it goes along seems to be
definitely ruled out. It follows that the star contains hidden within it the energy which has to last the rest of its life.

Energy has mass. energy is mass but

that.

The

prefer to say for not us to discuss ; necessary fact an essential is that erg of energy in any
it is

Many people would

io" ai

form has a mass of

i-i

grammes.

The

erg

is

the

usual scientific unit of energy ; but we can measure energy also by the gramme or the ton as we measure anything

98
else

The <Age of the Stars

which possesses mass.

There

is

no

real reason

why

you should not buy a pound of light from an electric light company except that it is a larger quantity than you are
likely to

need and
;

at current rates

would

cost

you some-

thing over

00,000,000.

If

light (ether-waves) travelling to

you could keep all this and fro between mirrors

vessel, the

forming a closed

vessel,

and then weigh the

observed weight would be the ordinary weight of the vessel plus i Ib. representing the weight of the light. It
is

evident that an object weighing a ton cannot contain more than a ton of energy ; and the sun with a mass of

2,000 quadrillion tons

(p. 24) cannot contain more than of tons 2,000 quadrillion energy at the most. 54 33 Energy of 1*8 io ergs has a mass 2 io grammes
*
.

which

is

the mass of the sun

consequently that

is

the

sum

of the energy which the sun contains the 1 life. to all the rest of its last it do energy which has not know how much of this is capable of being converted
total

We

into heat

and radiation

if it is all

convertible there

is

enough

to maintain the sun's radiation at the present rate

for 15 billion years.

form, the heat emitted

of

20

billion tons

put the argument in another by the sun each year has a mass and if this loss of mass continued
left at

To

there
1

would be no mass

the end of

5 billion years.

You may wonder why,

having said that the sun contains 2,000

quadrillion tons of energy at the most, I now assume that it contains just It is really only a verbal point depending on the scientific this amount.
definition of energy.
'

All mass

is

mass of something^ and

we now

call that

something
not.

You
is

one of the familiar forms of energy or will see in the next sentence that we do not assume that the
energy
it is

'

whether

energy

convertible into
to nothing.

known

forms, so that

it is

a terminology which

commits us

99

Subatomic Energy
This store of energy is, with insignificant exception, energy of constitution of atoms and electrons that is to
;

say,

subatomic energy.

Most

of it

is

inherent in the con-

the elementary out of which negative and positive electric charges so it that cannot be set free unless these matter is built
;

stitution of the electrons

and protons

are destroyed. The main store of energy in a star cannot be used for radiation unless the matter composing the
star is

being annihilated.

It is possible that the star

may have

a long

enough

life

small part of without raiding the main energy store. the store can be released by a process less drastic than
annihilation of matter,

and

this

might be

sufficient to

keep
is

the sun burning for 10,000,000,000 years or so, which

perhaps as long as we can reasonably require. The less Thus drastic process is transmutation of the elements.

we have reached a we can either us

;

point where a choice lies open before pin our faith to transmutation of the

elements, contenting ourselves with a rather cramped timescale, or we can assume the annihilation of matter, which
gives a very

ample

time-scale.

But

at present I can see

no

possibility

of a third choice.
First

Let

me

run over the

argument again. tion was hopelessly inadequate energy must be released in the interior of the star, so that it comes from an internal, not an external, source ; now
;

we found

that energy of contracthen we found that the

we

take stock of the whole internal store of energy. No supply of any importance is found until we come to consider the electrons

and atomic

nuclei

here a reasonable

amount can be

released

by regrouping the protons and

ioo

The iAge of the Stars

electrons in the atomic nuclei (transmutation of elements), and a much greater amount by annihilating them.

Transmutation of the elements

the alchemist
is

so long the

dream of

realized in the transformation of radio-

active substances.

Uranium

of lead and helium.

tain the sun's heat.

turns slowly into a mixture But none of the known radio-active

prpcesses liberate anything like enough energy to mainThe only important release of energy

by transmutation occurs
evolution of the elements.

at the very

beginning of the

We
mass
i

must

start

with hydrogen.

The hydrogen atom

consists simply of a positive and negative charge, a proton Let us call its for the nucleus plus a planet electron.

Four hydrogen atoms will make a helium atom, mass of the helium atom were exactly 4, that would show that all the energy of the hydrogen atoms remained But actually the mass is 3-97 so in the helium atom. that energy of mass 0-03 must have escaped during the formation of helium from hydrogen. By annihilating 4 grammes of hydrogen we should have released 4 grammes of energy, but by transmuting it into helium we release
.

If the

0*03 grammes of energy.

Either process might be used

to furnish the sun's heat though, as we have already stated, the second gives a much smaller supply.

The

release of energy occurs because in the

helium

atom only two of the four electrons remain as planet electrons, the other two being cemented with the four
protons close together in the helium nucleus.
positive

In bringing

and negative charges close together you cause a change of the energy of the electric field, and release electrical energy which spreads away as ether-waves. That The star is where the 0-03 grammes of energy has gone. can absorb these ether-waves and utilize them as heat.

Subatomic Bnergy

101

We can go on from helium to higher elements, but we

do not obtain much more release of energy. For example, an oxygen atom can be made from 16 hydrogen atoms or 4 helium atoms ; but as nearly as we can tell it has
just the weight of the

4 helium atoms, so
it is

that the release

of energy is not appreciably greater is transmuted into oxygen than when

helium. 1

when

the hydrogen

transmuted into

This becomes clearer

if

we

take the mass of

a hydrogen atom to be 1-008, so that the mass of helium is exactly 4 and of oxygen 1 6 ; then it is known from

Dr. Aston's researches with the mass-spectrograph that the atoms of other elements have masses which are very closely whole numbers. The loss of 0-008 per hydrogen

atom

applies approximately whatever the element that

is

formed.

The view

that the energy of a star

building up great advantage that there is no doubt about the possibility of the process ; whereas we have no evidence that
the annihilation of matter can occur in Nature.
I

derived by the of other elements from hydrogen has the

is

am

not

referring to the alleged transmutation of hydrogen into helium in the laboratory ; those whose authority I accept

To my mind the existence of helium is the best evidence we could desire of the possibility of the formation of helium. The four
are not convinced

by these experiments.

protons and two electrons constituting

its

nucleus must

have been assembled at some time and place ; and why not in the stars ? When they were assembled the surplus
energy must have been released, providing a prolific supply of heat. Prima facie this suggests the interior of a star
as a likely locality, since
*

undoubtedly a

prolific source

of

Aston in his
is

latest researches

has been able to detect that the oxygen

atom

just appreciably lighter than the four helium atoms.

102
heat
is

The *Age of the Stars

there in operation. I am aware that many critics consider the conditions in the stars not sufficiently extreme

to bring

about the transmutation

the stars are not hot

enough.
retort
;

The critics lay themselves open to an obvious we tell them to go and find a hotter place.
to end.

But here the advantage seems

There are many

astronomical indications that the hypothesis attributing the energy of the stars to the transmutation of hydrogen
It may perhaps be responsible for the unsatisfactory. of liberation rapid energy in the earliest (giant) stages
is

when

the star
;

is

a large diffuse

dantly

but the energy in

later life

a source subject to different

body radiating heat abunseems to come from laws of emission. There is

considerable evidence that as a star grows older it gets rid of a large fraction of the matter which originally constituted
it,

and apparently

this

can only be contrived by

the annihilation of the matter.

The evidence, however, is not very coherent, and I do not think we are in a position to come to a definite decision. On the whole the hypothesis of annihilation of matter

seems the more promising

and
tion

I shall

prefer
I
'

it

in the brief discussion of stellar evolu-

which

The

propose to give. phrase annihilation of matter

'

sounds like some-

do not yet know whether it can thing supernatural. occur naturally or not, but there is no obvious obstacle. The ultimate constituents of matter are minute positive
charges and negative charges which we may picture as centres of opposite kinds of strain in the ether. If these

We

could be persuaded to run together they would cancel out, leaving nothing except a splash in the ether which
spreads out as an electromagnetic wave carrying off the energy released by the undoing of the strain. The amount of this energy
is

amazingly large

by annihilating a

single

Subatomic Snergy
drop of water

103

we should be

power

for a year.

We

supplied with 200 horseturn covetous eyes on this store,

without, however, entertaining covering the secret of releasing it.

stars

much hope of

ever dis-

If it should prove that the have discovered the secret and are using this store to maintain their heat, our prospect of ultimate success

would seem
I

distinctly nearer.

suppose that many physicists will regard the subject of subatomic energy as a field of airy speculation. That is not the way in which it presents itself to an astronomer.
If it is granted that the stars evolve much more slowly than on the contraction-hypothesis, the measurement of the output of subatomic energy is one of the commonest

astronomical measurements
1

the measurement of the heat

The collection of observational data or light of the stars. as to the activity of liberation of subatomic energy is part of the routine of practical astronomy ; and we have to
pursue the usual course of arranging the measurements into some kind of coherence, so as to find out how the output
related to the temperature, density, or age of in short, to discover the laws the material supplying it
is

of emission.

From

this point

onwards the discussion may

be more or

according to the temperament of the investigator ; and indeed it is likely that in this as in other branches of knowledge advances may come
less hypothetical

by a proper use of the scientific imagination. Vain speculation is to be condemned in this as in any other subject, and there is no need for it the problem is one of
;
1

A measurement of the heat observed to flow from a continuous foun-

is a measurement of the output of the fountain, unless there is a storing of energy between the output and the outflow. The breakdown of the Kelvin time-scale indicates that the storing in the stars (positive or

tain of heat

negative) 'and consequent expansion or contraction to the output or outflow.

is

negligible

compared

The *Age of the Stars

induction from observation with due regard to our theoretical knowledge of the possibilities inherent in atomic
structure.

without mentioning the penetrating radiation long known to exist in our atmosphere, which according to the researches of Kohlhorster and Millikan comes from outer space. Penetrating power
I

cannot pass from

this subject

a sign of short wave-length and intense concentration of energy. Hitherto the greatest penetrating power has
is

rays originated by subatomic processes occurring in radio-active substances. The cosmic radiation is still more penetrating, and it seems

been displayed by

Gamma

reasonable to refer

it

to

more energetic processes

in the

atom such

energy. kan, and he concludes that the properties accord with those which should be possessed by radiation liberated in the transmutation of hydrogen ; it is not penetrating

as those suggested for the source of stellar Careful measurements have been made by Milli-

be attributed to a process so energetic as the annihilation of protons and electrons. There seems to be no doubt that this radiation is

enough

to

travelling

downwards from the sky. This is shown by measurements of its strength at different heights in the atmosphere and at different depths below the surface of mountain lakes it is weakened according to the amount of air or water that it has had to traverse. Presumably
;

its

source must be extra-terrestrial.

vary with the sun's altitude, so it is sun. There is some evidence that it varies according to the position of the Milky Way, most radiation being
received
is

strength does not not coming from the

Its

when

overhead.

the greatest extension of the stellar system It cannot come from the interior of the stars,
;

the penetrating power being too limited

all

the hottest

Subatomic Snergy
and densest matter
is shut off froni. ra> by most it could come only^to; the outer rind of the stars where the temperature is but it is more likely moderate and the density is low that its main source is in the diffuse nebulae or possibly

in the universe

impenetrable walls.

At

the

in the matter

1 forming the general cloud in space.

We
sible

must await further developments before we can

regard the supposed subatomic origin of this radiation as other than speculative ; we mention it here only as a pos-

opening for progress. It will be of great interest if we can reach by this means a more direct acquaintance
with the processes which we assume to be the source of and the messages borne to us by the stellar energy cosmic rays which purport to relate to these processes
;

deserve the closest attention.

are likely to be affected

Our views

on one

crucial point.

of stellar energy Hitherto

we have

in the interior of a star

usually supposed that the very high temperature is one of the essential conditions

for liberation of subatomic energy, and that a reasonably high density is also important. Theoretically it would

seem almost incredible that the building up of higher elements or the annihilation of protons and electrons could
proceed with any degree of vigour in regions where encounters are rare and there is no high temperature or intense radiation to wake the atoms from apathy; but
the

more we

face the difficulties of

all

theories of the

release of subatomic energy the less inclined we are to condemn any evidence as incredible. The presence of

sodium and calcium

in the cosmical cloud, of

helium and

1 The stars all put together cover an area of the sky much less than the apparent disk of the sun, so that unless their surface-layers are generating this radiation very much more abundantly than the sun does, they cannot

be responsible for
3308

it.

io6
nebulium

The *Age of the Stars

in the diffuse nebulae, of titanium

and zircon-

ium

in large quantities in the atmospheres of the youngest stars, bears witness that the evolution of the elements is

already far advanced during the diffuse prestellar stage unless indeed our universe is built from the debris of
a former creation.
that

From

this point

of view

it is

fitting

we should

discern

symptoms of subatomic
physicist may are four protons

activity in

open space.

But the

well shake his head

over the problem.

How

and two

elec-

trons to gather together to form a helium nucleus in a medium so rare that the free path lasts for days? The only comfort is that the mode of this occurrence is

(according to present knowledge) so inconceivable under any conditions of density and temperature that we may
postulate
as well
it

in the nebulae

on the principle that we may

be hung for a sheep as for a lamb.

Evolution of the Stars

seemed to be very simple. The stars begin by being very hot and gradually cool down until they go out.

Twenty

years ago stellar evolution

view the temperature of a star indicated the The outline of stage of evolution that it had reached. the sequence was sufficiently indicated by the crude
this

On

observation of colour
a

more

white-hot, yellow-hot, red-hot; detailed order of temperature was ascertained by

examining the light with a spectroscope.

naturally
stars

The

red stars

came last in the sequence ; they were the oldest on the verge of extinction. Sir Norman Lockyer strongly opposed this scheme and to a considerable extent anticipated the more modern view ; but most astronomers
pinned their

Ten

up to about 1913. more years ago knowledge had been gained of the
faith to it

& volution of the

densities of stars.
It

Stars

107
would be

seemed

likely that density

direct criterion of evolutionary development than temperature. Granted that a star condenses out of nebuit

more

lous material,

must
it

in the youngest stage

be very diffuse;

from

that stage

will contract

and

steadily increase in

density. But this necessitates

an entire rearrangement of the

scheme of evolution, because the order according to density is by no means the same as the order according On the former view all the cool to surface temperature. red stars were old and dying. But a large number of them are now found to be extremely diffuse stars like Betelgeuse, for instanced These must be set down as the
very youngest of the stars
;

after all

it is

not unnatural

that a star just beginning to condense out of nebulous material should start at the lowest stage of temperature.

Not

all

the red stars are diffuse

there are

many

like

Krueger 60 which have high density, and these we leave

undisturbed as representing the last stage of evolution. Both the first and last periods of a star's life are charac-

by low temperature in between whiles the temperature must have risen to a maximum and fallen again. The 'giant and dwarf theory' proposed by Hertzsprung and Russell brought these conclusions into excellent order.
terized
;

recognized a series of /##/ stars, comparatively diffuse stars with temperature rising, and a series of dwarf or
It

dense

stars

with temperature

falling.

The two

series

merged
during

its

at the highest temperatures. individual star lifetime went up the giant series to its highest

An

temperature and then

down

the dwarf series.

The bright-

ness remained fairly steady throughout the giant stage because the continually increasing temperature counter-

balanced the reduction of the surface area of the star

in

io8

The *Age of the Stars

the dwarf stage the decreasing temperature and the contraction of the surface caused a rapid decrease of brightness as the star progressed down the series. This was in accordance with observation. The theory has dominated

most recent astrophysical research and has been

mental in bringing to light
suffice.

instru-

a giant example must and a dwarf star with the same surface temperature, and therefore showing very similar spectra, nevertheless a
close examination of the

many important Although we may have

facts.

One

spectrum reveals

tell-tale differ-

ences

and

it is

now

spectrum whether the

dwarf.

star

quite easy to ascertain from the is a diffuse giant or a dense

dwarf theory was up-and-down progress of the temperature. The passing over from the giant to the dwarf series was supposed to occur when the density had reached such a value (about one-quarter
the density of water) that the deviation of the material from a perfect gas began to be serious. It was shown by Lane fifty years ago that a globe of perfect gas must rise
in temperature as it contracts, his method of finding the internal temperature being that considered on p. 12 ;

The

attractive feature of the giant and the simple explanation given for the

thus the rising temperature in the giant stage is predicted. But the rise depends essentially on the easy compressibility of the gas ; and when the compressibility is lost at

high density the rising temperature

may be

expected to

give place to falling temperature so that the star cools as a solid or liquid would do. That was believed to account
for the
I

to recall ideas of twenty and ten and must not suppose that from the standyou years ago, point of present-day knowledge I can endorse everything

dwarf stage. have been trying

S volution of the Stars

here stated.
I

109
as to

have intentionally been vague

star I

whether

by the hotness of a

mean

the internal or the surface

temperature since ideas were formerly very loose on this I have made no reference to white dwarfs, which ;

point are now thought to be the densest and presumably the oldest stars of all. But it is the last paragraph especially

which

conflicts

with our

latest conclusions, for

we no

longer admit that stellar material will cease to behave as Our a perfect gas at one-quarter the density of water. result that the material in the dense dwarf stars is still

blow at this part of the and dwarf theory. giant It would be difficult to say what is the accepted theory
a fatal perfect gas (p. 38) strikes

of stellar evolution to-day. The theory is in the meltingpot and we are still waiting for something satisfactory to

emerge.

The whole

subject

is

in

doubt and we are pre-

pared to reconsider almost anything. Provisionally, however, I shall assume that the former theory was right in assuming that the sequence of evolution is from the most
diffuse
to

the densest stars.

I

Although
it is

make

this

assumption former theory had strong reasons for making it which no longer apply. So long as contraction was supposed to be
the source of a star's heat, contraction

do not

feel

sure that

allowable.

The

and increasing
;

with density were essential throughout its whole career the acceptance of subatomic energy contraction ceases to
play this fundamental role. I propose to confine attention to the dwarf stars
*

because

it

is

among them

that the upset has occurred.

They form

a well-defined series stretching from high

to low surface-temperature, high low luminosity, and the density increases
'

surface-temperature

luminosity to
1
'

The term dwarf stars

is

not meant to include white dwarfs.

no
Series,

The *Age of the Stars

steadily along the series.

We

now

call this

the

Main

It comprises the great majority of the stars. To ideas let us take three typical stars along the series Algol near the top, the Sun near the middle, and Krueger
fix

60 near the bottom. The relevant information about them is summarized below
:

Mass
Star.

(Sun=i).
4-3
i

Algol

Sun
Krueger 60

0-27
is

The

that these represent the stages 1 passed through in the life-history of an individual star. The increasing density in the third column should be

idea of evolution

noticed

according to our accepted criterion it indicates that the order of development is Algol-^Sun->Krue;

ger 60. confusion between internal temperature and surface temperature is responsible for some of the mistakes of

the older theories.

To outward view

the star cools from

is

12,000 no such

to 3,000

in passing down the series, but there The central change in its internal heat.

temperature remains surprisingly steady.

1

(No

special

We

can scarcely suppose that

all stars after

pass through precisely the same stages. become reduced to the mass of the Sun,

reaching the main series For example, Algol, when it has may have slightly different density

individual differences are small.

;

But the observational evidence indicates that these The main series is nearly a linear ' ' ' sequence it must have some breadth as well as length ', but at present the scatter of the individual stars away from the central line of the sequence seems to be due chiefly to the probable errors of the observational data and the true breadth has not been determined.

and temperature.

Evolution of the Stars

reliance can be placed

1 1 1

on the

shown by Krueger 60.) stars of the main series have

slight falling off apparently It is very remarkable that all

a central temperature of about 40 million degrees as nearly as we can calculate. It is difficult to resist the impression that there is some unusual

with this temperature, although property associated our physical instincts warn us that the idea is absurd.

all

But the
fart of the

vital

point

is

the decrease of mass

to

shown

in

the second column.

If an individual star is

-progress

any

way down the main series it must lose mass. We can put the same inference in a more general way. Now that it has been found that luminosity depends mainly on mass, there can be no important evolution of faint stars from bright stars unless the stars lose a considerable part
of their mass.

which has caused the hypothesis of annihilation of matter to be seriously discussed. All proIt is this result

gress in the theory of stellar evolution is held up pending a decision on this hypothesis. If it is accepted it provides an easy key to these changes. The star may (after passing

through the giant stage) reach the stage of Algol, and then by the gradual annihilation of the matter in it pass

down

the main series until

when only

one-sixteenth of the

mass remains it will be a faint red star like Krueger 60. But if there is no annihilation of matter, the star when once it has reached the dwarf stage seems to be immovable it has to stay at the point of the series
original
;

corresponding to its constant mass.

Let

it

be clearly understood what

The

stars lose

mass by
its

their radiation
is

tion about that.

The sun
radiation

the point at issue. there is no ques; losing 120 billion tons

is

annually whether

comes from annihilation of

matter or any other internal source.

The

question

is,

1 1

"The

<Age of the Stars

Unless there
is

How long

can this loss continue ?

all

anni-

the mass that can escape as radiation will have escaped in a comparatively short time ; the sun will then be extinct and there is an end to the loss and
hilation of matter,
to the evolution.

But

if

there

is

annihilation of matter

the

life

of the sun and the loss of mass continue far

longer,

and an extended track of evolution

;

lies

open

before the sun

when
it

it

has got rid of three-quarters

of

its

present mass

will

have become a

faint star like

Krueger 60.
choice between the possible theories of subatomic energy only affects stellar evolution in one point but it Unless we choose annihilation of is the vital point.
matter,

Our

we

cut the

life

of a star so short that there

all.

is

no

time for any significant evolution at

I feel

the same objection that every one must feel to building extensively on a hypothetical process without any direct evidence that the laws of Nature permit of its

occurrence.

But the

alternative

is

to leave the stars in

sleepy uniformity with no prospect of development or change until their lives come to an end. Something is

needed to galvanize the scene into that activity, whether of progress or decay, in which we have so long believed.
Rather desperately we seize on the one
visible chance.

The

petrified

system wakes.

The

ultimate particles one

by one
Their

yield

up

their

sacrifice is

energy and pass out of existence. the life-force of the stars which now
:

adventure progress on their high

Atoms

or systems into ruin hurl'd,

a bubble burst,

And now

and

now

a world.

"3
Radiation of

Mass

Our

first

evidence of the extent of the time-scale of

afforded by the steadiness of condition This was supplemented by evidence of the

stellar evolution was

of 8 Cephei. time on the earth. great extension of geological

We could

not do more than set an upper limit to the rate of progress But of evolution and a lower limit to the age of the stars.
this limit

was sufficient to rule out the contraction hypodrive us to consider the store of subatomic energy. and thesis We now make a new attack, which depends on the
belief that the rate of evolution is determined by the rate at are here conwhich a star can get rid of its mass.

We

sidering only the evolution of faint stars from bright stars, and there will remain scope for a certain amount of

which our arguments will not directly apply. But to abandon all lines of evolution between bright stars and faint stars would mean admitting that one star differs from another star in brightness because it was different originally. This may be but we ought not to surrender the main field of true
development
in the giant stage to
;

stellar evolution

By

the

new

without making a fight for it. line of attack we reach a definite deter-

We

mination of the time-scale and not merely a lower limit. know the rate at which stars in each stage are losing

mass by radiation ; therefore we can find the time taken to lose a given mass and thereby pass on to a stage of smaller mass. Evolution from Algol to the Sun requires evolution from the Sun to Krueger 60 five billion years
;

requires

500

billion years.

It is interesting to

note that

stars in the stage

much more abundant

Sun
3308

between the Sun and Krueger 60 are than those between Algol and the
calculated
P

a fact

somewhat confirmatory of the

ii4

The *Age of the Stars

duration of the two stages. The abundance of faint stars does not, however, increase so rapidly as the calculated duration
universe has not existed long stars to be fully represented. old the for enough star of greater mass than Algol squanders its mass
;

perhaps the

stellar

increase the age of the Sun appreciably by supposing it to have started with greater mass than Algol. The upper limit to the present age of the Sun is 5-2 billion years however great its initial

very rapidly, so that

we do not

mass.
But,
it

may be

gress by radiation ?

getting rid of matter in

asked, cannot a star accelerate its prosome other way than by Cannot atoms escape from its surface ? If so

the loss of mass and consequent evolution will be speeded up, and the time required may perhaps even be brought

within range of the alternative theory of transmutation of the elements. But it is fairly certain that the mass

escaping in the form of material atoms is negligible compared with that which imperceptibly glides away in the form of radiation. You will perhaps be in doubt as to

whether the 120

in radiation

billion tons per

annum

lost

by the sun

is (astronomically regarded) a large quantity From certain aspects it is a large or a small quantity. quantity. It is more than 100,000 times the mass of the

blow off its chromosphere and form an entirely fresh one every five minutes in order to get rid of as much mass in this way as it loses by radiation. It is obvious from solar observation that there is no such outrush of material. To
calcium chromosphere.
to

The sun would have

put

it

another

way

in order to halve the time-scale of

evolution stated above it would be necessary that a billion atoms should escape each second through each square

centimetre of the sun's surface.

think

we mav

conclude

l^adiation of ZMass
that there
is

115

mass and that radiation is responsible for practically the whole loss. We noticed earlier (p. 25) that Nature builds stars which are much alike in mass, but allows herself some deviation from her pattern amounting sometimes to a mistake of one o. I think we may have done her an injustice,
no short cut
to smaller

and that she

posed.

is

more

careful over her

work than we sup-

We ought to have examined coins fresh from her

it

was not fair to take coins promiscuously, including many that had been in circulation for some hundreds of billions of years and had worn rather thin. Taking the newly formed stars, i. e. the diffuse stars, we find that
;

mint

90 per cent, of them are between i\ and $\ times the mass of the sun showing that initially the stars are made
nearly as closely to pattern as human beings are. In this range radiation pressure increases from 17 to 35 per cent,

of the whole pressure

think this would be expected to

rise to importance.
initially

be the crucial stage in its is that the stellar masses

Our

idea

have

this rather close

uniformity (which does not exclude a small proportion of exceptional stars outside the above limits) ; the smaller

masses are evolved from these in course of time by the

radiation of mass.

For the time being the sun

its

is

comfortably settled in

present state, the amount of energy radiated being just balanced by the subatomic energy liberated inside it.
Ultimately, however, it must move on. The moving on, or evolution, is continuous, but for convenience of ex-

speak of it as though it occurred in steps. Two possible motives for change can be imagined, (i) the supply of subatomic energy might fall off by
planation
shall

we

sun

exhaustion and no longer balance the radiation, and (2) the is slowly becoming a star of smaller mass. In former

n6
theories the

The *Age of the Stars

first

motive has generally been assumed, and we may still regard it as effective during the giant stage of the stars ; but it is clear that the motive to move down the

main series must be loss of mass. 1 Apparently the distinction between giant and dwarf stars, replacing the old distinction of perfect and imperfect gas, is that the prolific and soon exhausted supplies of subatomic energy in the giant stage dis-

appear and leave a much steadier supply in the dwarf stage. When the sun has become a star of smaller mass it will

need to

resettle its internal conditions.

Suppose that

at

first it tries

to retain

on

p. 12,

we

its present density. As explained can calculate the internal temperature, and

we

find that the reduced

mass coupled with constant

This will slightly density involves lower temperature. turn off the tap of subatomic energy, because there can

be

doubt that the release of subatomic energy is more rapid at higher temperature. The reduced supply will no longer be sufficient to balance the radiation
little
;

accordingly the star will contract just as it was supposed to do on the old contraction hypothesis which corresponds
to the tap of subatomic energy being turned off altogether.

The motive

is loss

of mass

the

first

consequence

is

an

increase of density which is another characteristic of progress down the main series.

Tracing the consequences

a little farther, the increasing

density causes a rising temperature which in turn reopens the tap of subatomic energy. As soon as the tap is opened

enough

to balance the rate of radiation of the star, the con-

traction stops at the smaller

1

and the star remains settled in equilibrium mass and higher density.

contract to higher density;

Exhaustion of supply without change of mass would cause the star to it would thus have a combination of density and
is

mass which (according to observation)

not found in any actual

stars.

l(adiation of

^Mass

117

You

will see that the

laws of release of subatomic

energy must be invoked if we are to explain^quantitaa particular density corresponds to a particular tively why

mass

The conin the progress down the main series. so to far to as the internal traction has proceed bring
conditions to a state in which the release of energy the exact rate required to balance the radiation.
I
is

at

am

afraid this
is

all

sounds very complicated, but

my

purpose

to

show
mass

alteration of

that the adjustment of the star after an is automatic. After a change of mass

the star has to re-solve the problem of the internal condi-

So far as mechanical tions necessary for its equilibrium. conditions are concerned (supporting the weight of the

upper

layers) it can choose

any one of a
it

series

of states

of different density provided

has the internal tempera-

ture appropriate to that density. But such equilibrium is only temporary, and the star will not really settle down
until the tap of subatomic energy is opened to the right extent to balance the rate of radiation which, as we have

already seen,
fiddles

is

practically fixed

by the mass.

The

star

about with the tap until

it

secures this balance.

One important
Professor Russell.

conclusion has been pointed out by When the star is adjusting the tap it
;

does not do so
lead to the next
trial

intelligently
trial,

one

trial

must automatically

and

it is

all-important that the next

should automatically be nearer to and not farther from the right rate. The condition that it shall be nearer
to the right rate

that the liberation of subatomic energy If it deshall increase with temperature or density. 1
is

creases, or
1

even

if it is unaltered,

the trials will be suc-

matic adjustment of the

This increase was assumed in our detailed description of the autostar, and it will be seen that it was essential to
it.

assume

1 1

The *Age of the Stars

cessively farther and farther from the required rate, so that although a steady balance Is possible the star will never be able to find it. It is therefore essential to admit

one of the laws of liberation of subatomic energy that the rate increases with temperature or with density or
as

with both

otherwise subatomic energy will not

it

fulfil

the
star

purpose for which

was
is

introduced, viz* to

keep the

steady for a very long time.

The

strange thing

that the condition of balance

is

reached when the central temperature is near 40 million the same whether the star is at the top, middle, degrees Stars at the top release or bottom of the main series.

from each gramme of material 700 ergs of energy per second the sun releases 2 ergs per second Krueger 60 It seems releases 0-08 ergs per second. extraordinary
; ;

that stars requiring such different supplies should all have to ascend to the same temperature to procure them. It

looks as though at temperatures below this standard not

even 0*08 ergs per second is available, but on reaching the standard the supply is practically unlimited. We can
scarcely believe that there is a kind of boiling-point (independent of pressure) at which matter boils off into energy.

The whole phenomenon is most perplexing. I may add that the giant stars have temperatures
siderably below 40 million degrees.
It

conthat

would appear

they are tapping special supplies of subatomic energy After using up these released at lower temperatures.
supplies the star passes on to the main series, and proceeds to tap the main supply. It seems necessary to suppose further that the main supply does not last indefinitely,
so that ultimately the star (or what is left of it) leaves the main series and passes on to the white dwarf stage.

We are now in a position to deal with a question which

l^adiation of
you may have wished
pulsate started off
?

Mass
Why does
S

119
Cephei

to ask earlier.

One
by

possible answer is that the oscillation was some accident. So far as we can calculate

an

oscillation, if

once
is

started,

would continue
to

thing like

10,000 years before becoming

somedown. damped
for

But 10,000 years

now deemed

be an insignificant

having regard to the abundance of Cepheids, the explanation seems inadequate even if we could envisage the kind of accident supposed.

period in the life of a star, and,

much more likely that the pulsation arises sponEnormous supplies of heat energy are being taneously.
It is

released in the star

far

maintain the pulsation

native

more than enough to start and and there are at least two alter-

ways in which this heat can be supposed to operate a mechanism of pulsation. Here is one alternative. Suppose first that there is
a very small pulsation.

When

compressed the

star has

higher temperature and density than usual and the tap of subatomic energy is opened more fully. The star gains heat, and the expansive force of the extra heat assists the rebound from compression. At greatest expansion the tap is turned off a little and the loss of heat diminishes
the resistance to the ensuing compression.
cessive

Thus the sucexpansions and compressions become more and

more vigorous and a large pulsation grows out of an

It will be seen that the star infinitesimal beginning. works the tap of subatomic energy just as an engine works

the valve admitting heat into its cylinder ; so that the pulsations of a star are started up like the pulsations of

an engine.

The
is

that

it is

only objection that too successful.

;

It

can find to this explanation shows why a star may be

is

expected to pulsate

but the trouble

that stars in

120
behave in
difficult
stars.

The *Age of the Stars

it is

general do not pulsate

this

Cepheids that

way. It is we have to turn back and face the more

pulsation will start

only the rare exceptions that now so easy to account for the

problem of accounting for the normal steady

Whether the

up or not depends

on whether the engine of pulsation is sufficiently powerful to overcome the forces tending to damp out and dissipate
cannot predict the occurrence or nonoccurrence from any settled theory; we have rather to
pulsations.

We

seek to frame the laws of release of subatomic energy so as to conform to our knowledge that the majority of the
stars

remain steady, but certain conditions of mass and density give the pulsatory forces the upper hand. Cepheid pulsation is a kind of distemper which happens
to stars at a certain youthful period
it
;

after passing

through

they burn

steadily.
life

There may be another attack of

the star

disease later in

is subject to those occasion the catastrophic outbursts which appearance of new stars or novae. But very little is known as to the
c '

when

conditions for this, and

it is

not certain whether the out-

break

spontaneous or provoked from outside. So long as we stick to generalities the theory of subis

atomic energy and especially the theory of annihilation of matter makes a fairly promising opening. It is when we come to technical details that doubts and perplexities arise.
Difficulties

appear in the simultaneous presence of giant

stars in coeval clusters,

and dwarf

notwithstanding their

widely different rates of evolution. There are difficulties in devising laws of release of subatomic energy which will
safeguard the stability of the stars without setting every Difficulties arise from the fact that star into pulsation.
as a rule in the giant stage the lower the temperature and density the more rapid the release of energy ; and although

121 T^adiation of 3\4a$s we account for this in a general way by considering the exhaustibility of the more prolific sources of energy, the
facts

are not

all

Finally grave release inferred

difficulties arise in

straightened out by such a scheme. reconciling the laws of

from astronomical observation with any theoretical picture we can form of the process of annihilation
of matter by the interplay of atoms, electrons, and radiation The subject is highly important, but we cannot very
.

well pursue

it

further in this lecture.

When the guidance

of theory
ciples
;

is

clear interest centres

round the broad prin-

when

the theory
details

is

rudimentary, interest centres

which are anxiously scrutinized as they appear to favour now one view now another. I have the problem of the dealt mainly with two salient points and the source of a star's energy change of mass which must occur if there is any evolution of faint stars from bright stars. I have shown how these appear to meet in the hypothesis of annihilation of matter. I do not hold
round technical
this as a secure conclusion.
I hesitate

even to advocate

it

me

as probable, because there are many details which seem to to throw considerable doubt on it, and I have formed

a strong impression that there must be some essential I simply tell it point which has not yet been grasped. you as the clue which at the moment we are trying to follow

up

not knowing whether

liked to

it is

false scent or true.

have closed these lectures by I should have leading up to some great climax. But perhaps it is more in accordance with the true conditions of scientific progress that they should fizzle out with a glimpse of the
obscurity which marks the frontiers of present knowledge. I do not apologize for the lameness of the conclusion, for it
is

not a conclusion.

wish

could feel confident that

it is

even a beginning.

APPENDIX
"Further
I

Remarks on

the

Companion of Sirius

preferred not to complicate the Story of the Companion of Sirius with details of a technical kind ; some further information
may,, therefore, be

HAVE

welcome

to those readers
this

who

are curious to
I arti also
'

learn as

much

as possible

about

remarkable
4

star.

able to add a further instalment of the

just

detective story

which has

come

to hand, the sleuth this time being

is

Mr. R. H. Fowler.
it is

The star
entirely

between the eighth and ninth magnitude,, so that

not an excessively faint object.

The difficulty in
light

detecting

it

arises

from the overpowering

it

able epochs

has been seen easily

is

of its neighbour. At favourwith an 8-inch telescope. The

period of revolution

49

years.

separated from Sirius by a distance nearly the of Uranus from the Sun or twenty times distance to equal the earth's distance from the sun. It has been suggested that the
is

The Companion

light
its

might be

reflected light

from

Sirius.

This would account

for

whiteness, but would not directly account for its spectrum, which differs appreciably from that of Sirius. To reflect i/i o,oooth of the
(its

light of Sirius

actual brightness) the

Companion would have

to

be 74 million miles in diameter. The apparent diameter of its disk would be o"'3, which, one would think, could scarcely escape
notice in spite of unfavourable conditions of observation.

But the

strongest objection to this hypothesis of reflected light is that it The other two recognized white applies only to this one star.

dwarfs have no brilliant star in their neighbourhood, so that they cannot be shining by reflected light. It is scarcely worth while to
invent an elaborate explanation for one of these strange objects which does not cover the other two.
is appealed to for confirmation of the a the wave-length and corresponding of high density, lengthening decrease of the frequency of the light due to the intense gravita-

The

Einstein effect, which

is

through which the rays have to pass. Consequently the dark lines in the spectrum appear at longer wave-lengths, i.e. displaced towards the red as compared with the corresponding tertional field
restrial lines.

The

effect

can be deduced either from the

relativity

T^emarks on the Companion of Sirius

123

theory of gravitation or from the quantum theory 5 for those who have some acquaintance with the quantum theory the following reasoning is probably the simplest. The stellar atom emits the

same quantum of energy hv as a terrestrial atom, but this quantum has to use up some of its energy in order to escape from the attraction of the star ; the energy of escape is equal to the mass hvjc 2 multiplied

by the gravitational potential

at the surface

of the

star.

Accordingly the reduced energy after escape is hv (i 0/<?) ; and since" this must still form a quantum hv'^ the frequency has to

change to a value
is

v displacement v' proportional to 0, i.e. to the mass divided by the radius of the star. The effect on the spectrum resembles the Doppler effect of a
v'

= v (i

$/

).

Thus the

velocity of recession,

and can therefore only be discriminated if we the In the case of a double already line-of-sight velocity. star the velocity is known from observation of the other component

know

of the system, so that the part of the displacement attributable to Doppler effect is known. Owing to orbital motion there is a difference of velocity between Sirius and
present to 4-3
its

Companion amounting

at

count
Sirius
sec.

been duly taken into acthe observed difference in position of the spectral lines of
sec.

km. per

and

this has

and

its

Companion corresponds

to a velocity of

of which 4 km. per

sec. is attributable to orbital

23 km. per motion, and

the remaining 19 km. per sec. must be interpreted as Einstein The result rests mainly on measurements of one spectral effect.
line

H$.

The

other favourable lines are in the bluer part of the

spectrum, and since atmospheric scattering increases with blueness, the scattered light of Sirius interferes. However, they afford some
useful confirmatory evidence.

Of the

other white dwarfs o 2 Eridani

is

a double

star, its

com-

panion being a red dwarf fainter than itself. The red shift of the spectrum will be smaller than in the Companion of Sirius and it will not be so easy to separate it from various possible sources of
error.

Nevertheless the prospect

is

is

not hopeless.

The

other

by Van and means there is no star, consequently shift and Einstein shift. between Various of distinguishing Doppler other stars have been suspected of being in this condition, including
recognized white dwarf Maanen ; it is a solitary

an unnamed

star discovered

the Companions of Procyon, 85 Pegasi, and

Mira

Ceti.

24
If the

^Appendix

Companion of Sirius were a perfect gas its central tembe about 1,000,0005000, and the central part of would perature the star would be a million times as dense as water. It is, however,
unlikely that the condition of a perfect gas continues to hold.
It

should be understood that in any case the density will fall off towards the outside of the star, and the regions which we observe are The dense material is tucked away under high entirely normal.
pressure in the interior. Perhaps the most puzzling feature that remains
is

the extra-

ordinary difference of development between Sirius and its Companion, which must both have originated at the same time. Owing
to the radiation of mass the age of Sirius
;

must be less than a billion would radiate itself down to years less than the present mass of Sirius within a billion years. But such a period is insignificant in the evolution of a small star which radiates more slowly, and it is difficult to see why the Companion should have already left the main series and gone on to this (presumably) later stage. This is akin to other difficulties in the problem of stellar evolution, and I feel convinced that there is somean
initial

mass, however large,

thing of fundamental importance that remains undiscovered. Until recently I have felt that there was a serious (or, if you like, a comic) difficulty about the ultimate fate of the white dwarfs.

Their high density is only possible because of the smashing of the atoms, which in turn depends on the high temperature. It does not seem permissible to suppose that the matter can remain in this compressed state if the temperature
falls.

We may look

forward to a

time

the supply of subatomic energy fails and there is nothing to maintain the high temperature 5 then on cooling down, the
star

when

material will return to the normal density of terrestrial solids. The must, therefore, expand, and in order to regain a density a

thousandfold

less

the radius must expand tenfold.

Energy

will be

required in order to force out the material against gravity. is this ordinary star has not energy to come from ?

Where
enough

An

heat energy inside it to be able to expand against gravitation to this extent ; and the white dwarf can scarcely be supposed to have had

make special provision for this remote demand. Thus the star may be in an awkward predicament it will be losing heat continually but will not have enough energy to cool down.
sufficient foresight to

125 One suggestion for avoiding this dilemma is like the device of a novelist who brings his characters into such a mess that the only
solution
4

on the Companion of Sirius

is

to kill

them

off.

We

might assume that subatomic

energy will never cease to be liberated until it has removed the whole mass or at least conducted the star out of the white dwarf
condition.
in

But this scarcely meets the difficulty the theory some to an guard automatically against impossible way ought predicament, and not to rely on disconnected properties of matter to protect the actual stars from trouble. The whole difficulty seems, however, to have been removed in He concludes unexa recent investigation by R. H. Fowler. the matter that dense of the of Sirius has an Companion pectedly
;

ample store of energy to provide for the expansion. The interesting point is that his solution invokes some of the most recent develop* ' ments of the quantum theory the new statistics of Einstein and Bose and the wave-theory of Schrodinger. It is a curious coincidence that about the time that
this matter of transcendently high the attention was of astronomers, the physicists engaging density were developing a new theory of matter which specially concerns

high density.

properties they are of serious importance at densities such as that of the ComIt was in considering these properties that panion of Sirius.

According to this theory matter has certain wave which barely come into play at terrestrial densities f but

Fowler came upon the store of energy that solves our difficulty the classical theory of matter gives no indication of it. The white dwarf appears to be a happy hunting ground for the most revolu;

tionary developments of theoretical physics. gain some idea of the new theory of dense matter

To

we

can

begin by referring to the photograph of the Balmer Series in Fig. 9. This shows the light radiated by a large number of hydrogen atoms
in all possible states

up to No. 30

in the proportions in

which they

occur naturally in the sun's chromosphere.

The

old-style elecro-

magnetic theory predicted that electrons moving in curved paths would radiate continuous light ; and the old-style statistical theory
predicted the relative abundance of orbits of different sizes, so that the distribution of light along this continuous spectrum could be
calculated.

tribution

These predictions are wrong and do not give the disof light shown in the photograph ; but they become less

126
glaringly
lines

^Appendix
wrong
as

to

the head of the series. The later crowd together and presently become so close as be practically indistinguishable from continuous light. Thus the

we draw near to

of the

series

of continuous spectrum is becoming approxitrue ; simultaneously the classical prediction of its intensity mately the truth. There is a famous Correspondence Principle approaches enunciated by Bohr which asserts that for states of very high
classical prediction

number the new quantum laws merge into the old classical laws. If we never have to consider states of low number it is indifferent
whether

we

calculate the radiation or statistics according to the old

laws or the new.

In high-numbered
distant

states

the electron

is

for

most of the time

far

from the nucleus. indicates a low-numbered

will give rise to

Continuous proximity to the nucleus Must we not expect, then, that state.

in extremely dense matter the continuous proximity of the particles phenomena characteristic of low-numbered states ?

There is no

and the organization of the

between the organization of the atom the ties which bind the particles in 5 the atom, bind also more extended groups of particles and eventually the whole star. So long as these ties are of high quantum number,
real discontinuity

star

the alternative conception is*sufficiently nearly valid which represents the interactions by forces after the classical fashion an'd takes

no cognizance of

states

'.

For very high

density there

is

no

alternative conception,

think not in terms of force, and distribution of independent particles, but in terms of velocity,
states.

and

we must

The effect of this breakdown of the classical

be seen by passing at once to the final limit a single system or molecule in state No. i.

when

conception can best the star becomes

Like an excited atom

collapsing with discontinuous jumps such as those which give the Balmer Series, the star with a few last gasps of radiation will reach the limiting state which has no state beyond. This does not mean that further contraction
in contact, any more by the electron jamming

barred by the ultimate particles jamming than collapse of the hydrogen atom is barred
is

against the proton

first

progress

is

stopped
series

because the star has, got back to the

of an integral

of

possible conditions of a material system. hydrogen atom in state No. i cannot radiate ; nevertheless its electron is moving with

ftmafk
kinetic
i

on the

Companion of
a
star

Sinus

127

high

energy,

Similarly
;

when
its

it

has reached state

are

No,

no longer

radiates

nevertheless

particles

moving with
you
measure
zero,

extremely great energy,

What is its temperature?

its

If
is

temperature by radiating power

since the radiation
is

temperature

absolute

nil

if

you

measure
is

temperature by the
the
is

average speed

of molecules
final fate

its

temperature

highest attainable
to

by

matter,

The

of the white dwarf

become

at the

same time the hottest and the coldest matter

is

in the universe,

Our
it

difficulty

doubly

solved.

Because the

star

is

intensely

hot

has

enough energy
cold
it

to cool

down if it wants to

because

it is

so
intensely

has

stopped radiating

and no wants to longer grow any colder,

is

We have described

what

believed to be the final state of the

star,

white dwarf and perhaps therefore of every

The Companion
so far

of

Sirius has not

yet

reached this
is

state,

but

it is

on the
If

way
stars

that the classical treatment

already

inadmissible,
like

any

have reached

state

No,

they

are invisible

atoms in the
of the atom

normal (lowest)

state

they give

no

light,

The

binding

which
the

defies the classical

conception offerees has extended to cover

star,

I little

imagined

when

this

survey

of Stars and

Atoms

was begun

that

it

would end with a

of a Star-Atom, j)iaps$ v

Printed, in

England at

the

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

to the

by John Johnson Printer

University