Evening star., 1935-04-09
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

tive to size, the distances between the
sun and its planets" are Of the same
order as in the solar system itself.
The inward pressure keeps reducing
the distances between the particles.
The more this is reduced the heavier
the substance becomes. One might
conceive Of the whole mass eventually
being reduced to q mathematical
point without length, breadth or
thickness except for the fact that
these particles do actually have di-
mensions. Prof. Gamow calculates
mathematically that this process
would continue until the average dis
tance between the particles of the
ideal gas would be only about a tril-
lionth of the average distance between
such particles on earth. And this
would result in matter weighing about
a million tons a cubic centimeter.
Applying certain mathematical
formulas, it can be determined which
of the three possibilities will happen,
according to the size of the star.
The sun falls well within the class
in which the heavy nucleus would
be formed. 1t Is probably quite small
relative to the mass of the sun itself
a few miles or q few hundred miles
in diameter.
What would be the state of such
packing of infinitely minute parti-
cles? First, says Prof. Gamow, it
would be unimaginably hot and re-
main so as the pressure continued
to push the particles closer and
closer together. But nothing could
be destroyed by this heat because
the primary particles have already
undergone all the effects heat could
have on them. Here Is q furnace
that will burn for billions Of years
without consuming any fuel. And
the radiant energy is sufficient to
account for the suns output of heat
and light since the solar system be-
gan. No, other hypothesis. Prof.
Gamow says. can account for this
without the assumption that the sun
Is consuming its own substance and
hence would have been destroyed
long ago.
This source of the suns heat has
been puzzle to physicists and as
tronomers for centuries. AS first it
was assumed that the sun was simply
burning up, like the coal in a fur
mace. But If this were true 1t would
have been entirely burned in a couple
of thousand years. Then the hypoth-
esis was advanced that the heat was
due to the transformation of po-
tential into kinetic energy through
the gravitational pull Of the center
on the material forming the outer
layers. This is somewhat similar to
the hypcthesis advanced by Prof.
Gamow, but the sun was presumed
to be composed Of homogeneous ma
terial throughout. Very little was
known about the behavior of atoms.
And under this theory, it was shown,
the whole process would have been
completed in about half q billion
years-less than fourth Of the time
during which the sun has existed.
About 10 years ago the British
mathematicians, Sir Arthur Edding-
ton and Sir James Jeans, advanced
the thesis which has held the field
practically up to the present. They
held that the suns enormous energy
output was due to the annihilation
OF matter, by some unknown process,
In its interior. Prof. Einstein and
others had demonstrated that matter
and energy were equivalent-that the
annihilation of matter would result
In the production of energy, accord
ing to the formula of mass times
the square Of the velocity Of light.
This was sufficient to account for
the SUMS energy output for about