Abstract
THE mechanisms of the periodicities of the sun and stars are matters still of great obscurity. The cyclic change of the sun's spotted area has long been known, indeed can be traced in the early Chinese observations. In probable association with this are periodicities of facular and floccular areas, and of prominence activity. Coronal forms have been shown to change in type from point to point of this solar cycle, while recent observations of the so-called “solar constant” have shown its intrinsic variability. This last also is likely to be periodic. Such intimate firsthand knowledge is impossible in the case of the stars. Their integrated light changes alone can be examined. For variable stars about or below the solar level, according to the classifications of Secchi, Lockyer, or Pickering, some idea of the details of their variation may be obtained by analogy with the sun. In dealing with the red variable stars this method has been followed in the publication under review. This is an “Essai d'une Explication du Mécanisme de la Périodicité dans le Soleil et les Étoiles rouges variables,” by A. Brester, Jz, Docteur ès Sciences, published by the Academy of Science, Amsterdam, 1908. The first accounts of the theory have been already reviewed in NATURE (vol. xxxix., p. 492, and vol. xlvii., pp. 433, 434). Its main features remain unchanged. The present statement gives it in the light of more recent knowledge, amends it in detail, and extends its application, more especially, to the case of red variable stars.
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Periodicity in the Sun and the Red Variable Stars 1 . Nature 79, 431–432 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/079431a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/079431a0