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Atomic Transmutation and Stellar Temperatures
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  • Letter
  • Published: 09 December 1933

Atomic Transmutation and Stellar Temperatures

  • T. E. STERNE1 

Nature volume 132, page 893 (1933)Cite this article

  • 375 Accesses

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Abstract

GAMOW and Landau1 suggest either that lithium of mass 7 can be present only occasionally on a star's surface, or that no regions with temperatures of more than several millions of degrees can exist in the interior of a star; their argument is that at higher temperatures lithium could not find its way by diffusion from “the internal regions of the star, where the production of different elements takes place” to the surface, before being disintegrated. Eddington2 has replied by noticing that the presence of ascending currents may decrease the time required for the ascent of the lithium, so as to remove the difficulty in accepting the central temperatures of the order of 2 × 107 found for his models, “whilst negativing any suggestion of considerably higher temperatures”.

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References

  1. NATURE, 132, 567, Oct. 7, 1933.

  2. NATURE, 132, 639, Oct. 21, 1933.

  3. "Internal Constitution of the Stars”, § 136.

  4. Z. Phys., 52, 510; 1928.

  5. Lawrence and others, Phys. Rev., 42, 150; 1932. Henderson, Phys. Rev., 43, 98; 1933.

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. A paper of the author's on this and allied topics is published in the Mon. Not. R.A.S., 93, No. 9; Oct. 1933.

  7. A paper of the author's on the equilibrium of transmutations is in the Mon. Not. R.A.S., 93, No. 9; Oct. 1933.

  8. Mon. Not. R.A.S., 90, 54; 1929.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Mass.

    T. E. STERNE

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  1. T. E. STERNE
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STERNE, T. Atomic Transmutation and Stellar Temperatures. Nature 132, 893 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132893a0

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  • Issue date: 09 December 1933

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132893a0

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