Evening star., 1951-04-27
Hydrogen-HeIium Cycle
Described to Physicists
Called Major Source Of Heot
And Light of the Sun
By Thomas R. Henry


A billion-year cycle in which HYDRO
gen, the mother gas of creation, is
converted into the ashes of helium was
described to the American Physical So
ciety here today as the major source of
the heat and light of the sun.
Hitherto the heat which warns the
solar system has been attributed chiefly
to the So-called carbon cycle" in which
helium is created out of hydrogen by q
much more rapid process. But, 1t was
stressed before The physicists, the new
process must be at least 100-fold more
important, even though it is hundreds
Of times slower.
This process is the "proton -proton re-
action" 1t postulates that two pro-
tons, each of which is a nucleus Of
hydrogen atom, pass close enough to
each other SO that they stick together.
Thus they form one atom of double
weight hydrogen or deuterium. The
closeness of contact at which this stick
ing together will take place is incredibly
precise-about the fraction of cent?
meter represented by one over 10 fol-
lowed by so ciphers. If they pass at any
greater distance, they simply fly past
each other.
Series of TransmutatiOns.
Once the deuterium atom is formed.
the process involves series Of trans
mutations of elements involving lithiun
and berylium until finally double atom
of helium is formed. A certain amount
of energy is released in the process
which was calculated at about 100 ergs
per gram per second of the solar mat
ter involved. An erg is an extremely
small amount of energy but the figure
becomes enormously great when 1t II
considered that about a fiftieth Of the
mass of the sun constantly is involved.
This is the matter at the suns center
where the temperature is at minimum
of Is million degrees centigrade.
BY this process. combined with the
carbon cycle, the sun actually loses
mass at rate of millions Of tons a day
but still the loss is too minute relative
to the suns complete mass to be meas
ured by any technique known to man.
The carbon cycle still takes place in
the sun, it was emphasized in report
presented by Drs. Edward Fireman and
Lloyd Motz of the Brooklyn Polytechnic
Institute, but is not anywhere near so
prominent as has been emphasized in
the past. It still is the predominant
source of energy of the hot stars which
sprinkle space. The sun is only me-
dium star, rather on the cold side.
An important feature of the new
theory is that it does not require any
particular temperature in which to
function. It could proceed at any tenn
perature down to absolute zero, but it
would decrease rapidly in efficiency be-
low 100000 degrees.
Argentine Claim Involved.
Naturally involved in the discussion
was the recent Argentine claim to hav-
ing produced atomic energy by a process
similar to that which goes on in the
SUM- Only two processes can be poStu-
lated from anything known at present
the carbon cycle and the deuteron-
deuteron reaction. The former requires
about $4,000, 900 years, the latter bill
lion years. No other possibility ever has
been advanced by responsible scientists.
Also involved, naturally, is the ques-
ton of the hydrogen bomb in which the
reaction of converting hydrogen to he
lium. with substantial loss Of mass, is
involved. But in the bomb the reaction
must take place In a fraction Of sec
ollu. NdtuIc . uyuioBcA OO4a0S 1cQuHe
millions of years. at q minimum, to
explode. 7&dF
At the BEST the sun can have passed
through only one or two of the proton-
proton reactions postulated in the pres
ent theory. '
Very gradually of course. the whole
sun is being transmitted into helium,
but at rate SO slow that many billions
of years must elapse before there is
complete transformation into this inert
gas. Then the solar system will be dead.
-.T1 - ~ E-est %r+.