Evening star., 1953-08-26
Sun Has Two Crowns,
Infrured Illuminated
Tiny Bits Of Ice Believed
In Space Between Sturs
BY Thomas R. Henry

The sun has two crowns, one Of
electronS and one of dust.
These are conclusions drawn from
analysis Of observations of the last
total solar eclipse by DR.. r. D. Black
well Of the Cambridge University solar
physics observatory. r
These observations show, he said in
p report to the British scientific journal
Nature, that there Is q great excess Of
infrared light in the suns pearl-hued
corona at distance of about two-and-
a-half solar radii from the suns visible
surface. This black light radiation falls
In part Of the spectrum which would
be produced by diffraction from minute
particles Of matter-but still very large
compared to electrons. DR.. Blackwell
calculated their average size as about
q thousandth Of cubic centimeter.
Thick Ring visualized.
These particles swept in from space
or shot out from the surface Of the sun
itself must constitute very thick ring
encircling the orb, he believes.
The rest Of the corona is such as
would be expected from a great but ex-
tremely tenuous ring of electrons at an
extremely high temperature.
Space between the stars may be filled
with minute, very tenuously distributed
ice particles.
This conclusion is advanced to ex-
plain the polarization of light from dis
tant stars by DR.. F. D. Kohn of the
University of Manchester, whose report
also appears in Nature.
These particles, which must be in
rapid rotation, have been assumed in
the past to be extremely fine grains
OF iron or some other magnetic ma
terlal Whirled about in a strong mag
netic field.
The conditions are met just as well,
DR.. Kahn says, by assuming that they
are elongated crystals of hydrogen
oxygen combination. These invisibly
minute bits of ice would behave in about
the same way and the two elements
are much more abundant than iron in
the universe.
There are now is known kinds of
mesons.
These are the tiny brief-lived ele-
mentary solid particles into which some
OF the energy which binds together the
nucleus of an atom is transmitted when
that nucleus is split by impact of a
cosmlc ray in the heavens or in some
OF mans more powerful atom smashers.
Their lifetimes range from a few
Observation-Disclosures to a few quadril-
ionths of a second.
Their Ho q
times that of an electron, whose weight
is less than a tenth-billionth of gram.
All creation is full of them.
One instant they are energy, part Of
the force which is by far the greatest
in the universe. The next instant they
are material particles. The next they
have split up into particles and energy.
Picture Is Confused.
The meson picture remains greatly
confused. From all over the world
during the past few years have come
reports of different kinds of these
particles-Some probably based on in
adequate observations.
AS clear a classification as possible
to date was presented in the semian-
nual report of the Atomic Energy Com
mission. Under auspices of both the
commission and the Office of Naval
Research, intensive Investigations are
being made at the Aces Brookhaven,
N. Y. laboratory, University of Cali
fornia, California Institute Of Tech
nology, Carnegie Tech, University of
Michigan, Purdue and the University
of Rochester.
A clearer understanding of these
particles is essential for an understand
ing of the forces inside the atom Their
existence was predicted theoretically in
1889 by a Japanese physicist.
The commission reports only those
for whose existence it believes there
is conclusive evidence. Some have been
observed only once or twice.