Abstract
SINCE the publication of Homer Lane's paper “On the Theoretical Temperature of the Sun” in 1870, many writers have discussed the internal state of a star, considered as a globe of gas in equilibrium under its own gravitation. Recent observational work gives encouragement to these investigations, for it is now known that numerous stars are in a truly gaseous condition with mean densities similar to that of our atmosphere. To such stars the results for a perfect gas may fairly be applied, whereas stars, such as the sun, with densities greater than water must necessarily deviate widely from the theoretical conditions. The stars which are in a perfectly gaseous state correspond to the “giants” on H. N. Russell's theory,1 or to the stars of rising temperature on Lockyer's principle of classification; the denser “dwarfs” are outside the scope of this discussion. The two series coalesce for spectral type B, which marks the highest temperature attained.
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References
NATURE, vol. xciii., pp. 227, 252, and 28r.
There are strong reasons for believing that the interior of a star must be in radiative equilibrium, not convective equilibrium. Ihe internal distribution of temperature and density is, however, of the same character either case; if the coefficient of absorption is independent of the temperature, then the distribution corresponding to radiative equilibrium is the same as that of material for which y = in convective equilibrium. See Moni/Ily Nolices, R.A.S., vol. lxxvii., p. 16.
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Loc. cit., p. 252, Figs. I, 2, and
NATURE, vol. lx., p. 350.
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EDDINGTON, A. The Radiation of the Stars . Nature 99, 308–310 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/099308a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/099308a0