Abstract
THE difficulties which have so far been experienced in working out a physical theory of the solar corona (vide Rosseland, “Theoretical Astrophysics”, Chap. 14) have apparently been increased by the discovery of Grotrian and Edlén that many of these lines are due to forbidden transitions of highly stripped atoms of iron and nickel having the constitution 3px (x = 1 to 5), and to calcium atoms having the constitution 2 px; thus the line 5303 is produced by an iron ion which has lost as many as thirteen electrons. After learning of this extraordinary discovery from an article by Prof. H. N. Russell in the Scientific American of August, 1941, I undertook a critical examination of the available spectroscopic data, and can confirm that the claim is a sound one.
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SAHA, M. The Solar Corona. Nature 149, 524–525 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149524b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149524b0
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