Re: Moon of cheese, Sun of iron and Great Helioseismology Article

From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Tue Jul 23 2002 - 01:14:00 MDT


samantha wrote:
>Just for grins, if this maybe kook is right, what would his
>theory say about the likely lifespan and stages of the Sun's
>life that is different?

He doesn't seem to use the p-p chain for fusion. I'm not sure how or if
his proto-Sun collapses in a Kelvin timescale to the main- sequence.
His nucleosynthesis for fusion is something obscure that I can't figure
out. If someone else can, you are welcome! I don't know what it
means for time scales because I don't have enough of my own time to go
into it further.

------------
from here, he says
http://web.umr.edu/~om/abstracts2001/nuc_evol_first_gen_star.html

Nuclear evolution in the Sun and in first generation stars

1. First generation stars fuse 1H into heavier nuclides.

2. At the end of their life, material in the core may be compressed
into a neutron star (NS). Our Sun, a second generation star, formed on
this product [Science 195, 208-209 (1977)].

3. The NS acts as a giant nucleus, decaying with the emission of
neutrons (Q = 10-22 Mev/neutron; t1/2 approximatly equals to 1010 years)
[Abstract 1041, Lunar Planetary Science Conference XXXII, LPI
Contribution No. 1080, ISSN No. 0161-5297, (2001)].

4. After 1n -> 1H decay, the 1H-atoms migrate upward, carrying
lighter elements and lighter isotopes of each element to the solar
surface [Meteoritics 18, 209-222 (1983)].

5. En route most of the 1H-atoms are consumed by fusion. The small
fraction that reach the surface generate a solar wind flux of 3 x 1043
1H-atoms per year.

The above scenario is consistent with isotopic ratios in the solar wind
(SW) and with the observed fluxes of solar neutrinos and SW-protons

------------

Samantha,
In order to use stellar evolution (which gives you most of what you know
regarding ages of objects in the universe), you have to use the stellar
evolution theory consistently. You can't throw away the part for how the
star contracts onto the main sequence and then use the rest of it in
order to for chemical composition and other changes, for example. It
explains well how one can have astronomical objects shining for billions
of years, and how you can have bound stellar systems (whose ages are
inferred) such as globular clusters that are billions of years old.

A star of a certain mass and radius fusing hydrogen to helium at its
core has a well determined life on The main sequence. I really don't
know what he is saying for how his sun uses fusion. If he can match
helioseismologist measurements which are well-matched with models
for example, if he can match the sound speeds, or the location of the
convection zone or match the surface abundances of heavy elements
with his iron-sun theory then that's at least something. But I saw
nothing like that at his web site, and he is a poor writer and I
became disgusted wading through it and gave up.

Modeling a Star's evolution
http://www.amara.com/ftpstuff/fusionzone.txt

What is the Solar Model?
http://mnbsun.stmarys.ca/~guenther/solar/what_is_ssm.html

And the paper by Christensen-Dalsgaard to show
how helioseismology measurements observe stellar evolution
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0207403

Amara

-- 
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Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"How we spend our days is how we spend our lives." --Annie Dillard


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