Solving the Giant Stars Problem: Theories of Stellar Evolution from the 1930s to the 1950s (2010)
Historiography has pointed out that the time between the mid 1910s and the early 1930s can be considered a pivotal period in the history of stellar astrophysics. In those years, scholars like Saha and Eddington first applied atomic physics to astrophysics. Theoretical astrophysics was born. This led to the development of the first physically sound models for stellar interiors and atmospheres. These landmark achievements spurred scholars to elaborate theories for stellar evolutions, and in the following decades several astrophysicists focused on this problem. The evolutionary role of red giants turned out to be the main issue. Those stars were initially assumed to be young ones going through the formation stage, but astrophysicists gradually realized that they were rather to be considered old, evolved stars. The solution of the giant stars issue required a couple of decades: it was not until the mid 1950s that a satisfactory explanation was obtained. This provides a detailed picture of the theories of stellar evolution from the 1930s to the 1950s and of the solution to the red giants problem, with special emphasis on how such a solution was made possible by a series of subsequent steps: the identification of changing chemical composition as a main evolutionary feature of a star, the inclusion of nuclear physics within the theoretical framework of stellar astrophysics, the recognition of the importance of inhomogeneities that settle within stars as nuclear processes go on.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Boner, Patrick J.;
Tessicini, Dario;
(2013)
Celestial Novelties on the Eve of the Scientific Revolution, 1540--1630
(/isis/citation/CBB001200998/)
Book
Boner, Patrick J.;
(2010)
Change and Continuity in Early Modern Cosmology
(/isis/citation/CBB001032021/)
Article
Stanley, Matthew;
(2007)
So Simple a Thing as a Star: The Eddington--Jeans Debate over Astrophysical Phenomenology
(/isis/citation/CBB000771301/)
Article
Cenadelli, Davide;
(2008)
The Hydrogen Abundance in Stars: A First Major Step for Quantitative Astrophysics
(/isis/citation/CBB001034774/)
Article
Nauenberg, Michael;
(2008)
Edmund C. Stoner and the Discovery of the Maximum Mass of White Dwarfs
(/isis/citation/CBB000930130/)
Article
DeVorkin, David H.;
(2006)
The Changing Place of Red Giant Stars in the Evolutionary Process
(/isis/citation/CBB000771282/)
Article
Holberg, J. B.;
(2009)
The Discovery of the Existence of White Dwarf Stars: 1862 to 1930
(/isis/citation/CBB000932194/)
Article
DeVorkin, David H.;
(2000)
Quantum Physics and the Stars (V): Physicists at Mount Wilson Prior to 1922
(/isis/citation/CBB000671369/)
Article
Hufbauer, Karl;
(2006)
Stellar Structure and Evolution, 1924--1939
(/isis/citation/CBB000670083/)
Article
Craig Fraser;
(2022)
Vesto Slipher, Nebular Spectroscopy, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology, 1912–22
(/isis/citation/CBB182387107/)
Book
Longair, Malcolm S.;
(2006)
The Cosmic Century: A History of Astrophysics and Cosmology
(/isis/citation/CBB000772096/)
Book
Hearnshaw, J. B.;
(2014)
The Analysis of Starlight: Two Centuries of Astronomical Spectroscopy
(/isis/citation/CBB001551779/)
Book
Harm J. Habing;
(2018)
The Birth of Modern Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB858392112/)
Article
S. Mohammad Mozaffari;
Jeremy J. Drake;
(2021)
Algol Anomaly or Careful Observations of its Brightness? The Values Recorded for the Magnitude of Algol in the Medieval Astronomical Corpus
(/isis/citation/CBB198385705/)
Book
Ileana Chinnici;
(2019)
Decoding the Stars: A Biography of Angelo Secchi, Jesuit and Scientist
(/isis/citation/CBB547940053/)
Chapter
Michael Rotondo;
(2016)
On the concept of degenerate stars: the case of white dwarfs
(/isis/citation/CBB672582700/)
Book
Katia Moskvitch;
(2020)
Neutron Stars: The Quest to Understand the Zombies of the Cosmos
(/isis/citation/CBB559459540/)
Article
Wesemael, François;
(2009)
Harkins, Perrin and the Alternative Paths to the Solution of the Stellar-Energy Problem, 1915--1923
(/isis/citation/CBB000932198/)
Book
Fraser, Gordon;
(1998)
The Particle Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000110625/)
Book
Jayawardhana, Ray;
(2013)
Neutrino Hunters: The Thrilling Chase for a Ghostly Particle to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB001213184/)
Be the first to comment!