Abstract
THE Cawthron Lecture for 1947, with the title of "Problems in Astronomy, Solved and Unsolved", was delwered by F. G. Gibbs, curator of the Atkinson Qbservatroy, Nelson, N.Z., and gives a very useful survey of the progress of astronomy during the last two decades. Some space is devoted to an examination of the theories of the source of stellar energy, and a short description is given of Bethe's carbon-cycle theory which is now generally accepted. A consideration of variable stars leads to the past history of the sun, the heat of which has been shown by geological evidence to have varied considerably during the last 1,000 million years. Simpson's pluvial theory is dealt with—a theory which assumes that increased precipitation of moisture in the form of rain and snow was due to an increase in the heat of the sun—but no satisfactory explanation has yet been given of the cause of the variation in the sun's heat. Regarding novæ and super -novæ, no explanation is suggested beyond the statement that "atomic energy has no doubt something to do with it". Among some of the problems still awaiting solution are the origin of the solar system, the evolution of the stars, the structure and evolution of the universe, and cosmic rays. This lecture provides a very helpful summary of the progress of astronomy in comparatively recent times and also of the problems still awaiting solution, some of which appear more intractable now than they did twenty years ago.
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Problems in Astronomy. Nature 163, 632–633 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163632c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163632c0