Is the Sun really hot?

The question is, on the face of it, almost insane. No-one could possibly doubt that the sun is the only source of external heat on earth. And, certainly, the part that we see, the sun's photosphere, is some 5,800 degrees Kelvin. The solar corona, which extends into space, may be as hot as one million degrees Kelvin. But what exactly is underneath this hot atmosphere? The explanation universally accepted without question is that it must be an even hotter mass of hydrogen gas, fusing into helium and other elements at temperatures of 15 million degrees Kelvin in a continuous thermonuclear explosion -- a giant H bomb.

This universal view is based on the mathematical work of Arthur Eddington in the 1930s and Hans Bethe's theoretical confirmation in the 1950s (for which he won the Nobel prize in 1967). Above all else, we have the overwhelmingly awesome experimental confirmation of the nature of nuclear fusion by the test detonations of H bombs in the Pacific.

However, physicists have always been aware of nagging problems with the conventional view of how stars form and how they burn. And now, Italian physicist Renzo Boscoli, has published details of a theory that is staggering: the theory that far from being hot underneath its atmosphere, the sun may, at its core, be a ball of ice in which not hot, but cold fusion reactions are taking place.

The conventional view of how stars form is that a cloud of interstellar hydrogen collapses under gravity until, under enormous pressure, the atoms of hydrogen become so hot they fuse to form helium. Once ignited, the core of the newly formed star burns continuously, transmuting hydrogen to helium, helium to carbon and so on, until the fuel is exhausted and the star's life is over.

There are some problems with this view. For instance, when gases are compressed, as under gravity, they also heat up, and this makes them expand. As temperature increases, the outward force due to expansion will become greater than the force of gravity compressing the gas and the gas will simply dissipate in space again. How then could the condensing hydrogen cloud ever ignite spontaneously?

There are many other puzzling features of the sun: how can a surface at 'only' 5,800 degrees Kelvin give rise to a corona of 1 million degrees Kelvin? Why does the surface rotate faster at the equator than at higher latitudes? Why does the planet Mercury have a strangely perturbed motion?

In two ground-breaking papers published in Infinite Energy magazine, Renzo Boscoli offers some astounding answers to these puzzles.

Boscoli points out a phenomenon discovered in the 1930s but -- like many such anomalies -- virtually ignored since. French physicist Georges Ranque discovered that if you make a body of gas rotate, as in a turbine, the hottest (most energetic) molecules are somehow separated to the outside of the mass, while the gas at the centre gets colder. It is relatively easily experimentally to make a 'Ranque tube' where the difference in temperature between air in the middle and air at the outside is more than 100 degrees C, simply by causing the air to rotate.

This experimental result appears to contradict the laws of thermodynamics and at present remains unexplained. But Boscoli points out that its implications for the formation of stars may be immense.

While a cloud of hydrogen condensing under gravity is an unlikely candidate for a new star because heat would make it expand and dissipate again, a rotating cloud of hydrogen would give rise to a remarkable object -- one where the temperature at its exterior would continue to rise while the temperature at its core would continue to fall. At first the hydrogen core would become so cold it would liquify and finally solidify.

Says Boscoli, 'If this mass of gas . . . would begin to rotate upon itself, it would necessarily assume a progressively flatter ellipsoidal form as its rotational velocity increased. And . . the Ranque effect would begin to be exerted, therefore producing a cooling at the centre and a heating of the periphery of the ellipsoid.'

He adds, 'Due to a constant Ranque effect I see no reason why the centre would not continue to cool towards absolute zero.'

Boscoli first conceived his ideas some thirty years ago. He has published them for the first time because the Arecibo radiotelescope has reported finding an enormous hydrogen cloud that is very cold (around minus 200 degrees C) and that is rotating on its own axis.

Boscoli goes onto add that nuclear reactions such as that of the H bomb are impossible at absolute zero. But he believes that 'cold' nuclear fusion reactions may be possible due to the immense gravitational pressures. The reaction he envisages is that of the gravitational collapse of a proton and electron, producing a neutron.

Boscoli's theory solves the problem of Mercury's strange orbit and the sun's differential rotation. It also explains sunspots as simply holes in the atmosphere. If Boscoli is right, there may after all, be 'something new under the sun.'

This isn't a subject that I know much about, but from doing some casual Google searches, surprisingly the above paragraph appears to be true. Here is what appears to be a current version of the device (a "Wirbelrohr"):

Apparently, all it takes is some compressed air, and out comes cool air on one side and hot air on the other.

One source mentioned that as far back as 1958 such a device appeared in the old Scientific American Amateur Scientist column.

Commercially, there appears to be a company that sells these devices. Here's an English translation courtesy of Google of a page from their website:

Principle of the wirbelrohrs

Our wirbelrohre are available in many sizes with different cooling performance.
Standing: 308BSP and 208BSP
Lying: 106BSP and 328BSP

Wirbelrohre

The principle of the wirbelrohrs:
The wirbelrohr was discovered 1930 by the French physicist Georges Ranque. Vortec was the first enterprise, which developed effective applications of cooling for the industry on the basis of the eddy tubing principle use in general practice. Here a short description of the eddy tubing principle follows.
Liquid, which turns around an axle - like a Tornado -, as "eddy" designated. A wirbelrohr produces an eddy from compressed air and separates it into two rivers, a hot and a cool air stream. Compressed air occurs a cylindrical generator, which is proportionally larger than (for a long time) is called pipe, where she shifts air there present in turn. Afterwards circling air at the inner wall of the hot pipe is pressed along, where it reaches speeds of 1,000,000 U/min. At the end of the hot pipe a small part of this air escapes by a needle valve at the hot-air withdrawal. Remaining air is led back obligatorily with lower speed by the center of the occurring air flow. The warmth in more slowly flowing air is transferred to faster flowing occurring air. Undercooled air flows by the center of the generator to the cool air withdrawal.

The wirbelrohre of ITW Vortec are available in a broad size scale for different process and applications of point cooling. They offer still higher cooling performance than the cool air pistols.
Characteristics:

Cooling without refrigerants (CFC/HCFC) and without moved parts, thus reliably and interference-proof
no electricity, intrinsically safe, no HF disturbances
compact and easy building method, thus easy installation, also within with difficulty accessible, narrow ranges

Model

Compressed air 100 PSIG

Compressed air 6.9 bar

kcal/h

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Consumption
SCFM

Consumption
l/min.

Temperature
Waste °C *

106bsp-2-h

2

57

34

25

106bsp-4-h

4

113

44

64

106bsp-8-h

8

227

45

101

208bsp-11-h

11

312

47

161

208bsp-15-h

15

425

47

227

208bsp-25-h

25

708

37

378

308bsp-35-h

35

992

42

668

328bsp-50-h

50

1416

44

756

328bsp-75-h

75

2125

47

1134

328bsp-100-h

100

2833

43

1512

Achievement in kcal/h with compressed air dried by 21°C, on a dew point of -40°C.
* The temperature of the air flow can be lowered additionally around 11°C. Lower air flow temperatures can be reached, as the hot-air stream is strengthened by the attitude of the needle valve. The needle valve is in the hot-air withdrawal. Wirbelrohre produce at smaller air flow, lower temperatures and smaller kcal/h achievement.

Accessories:

Model

Description

106GEN

independent generator for wirbelrohr indicate 106 when ordering: 2, 4 or 8 SCFM

106MCBSP

Cold the muffler for wirbelrohr 106

208GEN
independent generator for wirbelrohr indicate 208 when ordering: 11, 15, 25 or 35 SCFM

208MCBSP
Cold the muffler for wirbelrohr 208 or 308

208MH
Being called muffler for wirbelrohr 106 or 208

308MH
Being called muffler for wirbelrohr 308

328M
Cold or being called muffler for wirbelrohr 328

328XB
independent generator for wirbelrohr indicate 328 when ordering: 50, 75 or 100 SCFM

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