Abstract
THE explosion in an 'atom bomb' occurs when two masses of uranium-235, each too small to retain sufficient neutrons to start a chain reaction, are brought into juxtaposition within a certain critical volume. A similar state of affairs will account for the phenomena of pulsating stars, but with this difference, that whereas in terrestrial experiments the reacting material is dissipated by the force of the explosion, in the interior of a star those heavy nuclei which have escaped fission during the course of one explosion are reconcentrated by gravitational attraction and are available as a neutron source, or for fission, a few days later.
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References
Nature, 162, 627 (1948).
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STANLEY-JONES, D. Pulsating Stars and Nuclear Energy. Nature 162, 934 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162934a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162934a0
