Gazing up at the Man in the Star?

NSF ^ | 06/01/2007 | NSF

[Moonman62]

[kinoxi]

Interesting stuff.

[Ciexyz]

Info bump.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Altair 4- The Forbidden planet!

[EndWelfareToday]

Question... How does anyone know that our Sun burns Hydrogen? Was a prob sent to the Sun to collect data? Is there a lab on the Sun that I’ve not heard of? How can anyone state with such certainty what the Sun does or does not burn with the limited knowledge we actually have about the Sun?

[Kirkwood]

We can see it.

[kinoxi]

What do you think it burns?

[Xenophon450]

Ethanol

[kinoxi]

Yes, of course. Corn is the answer...

[Pikachu_Dad]

The Sun converts hydrogen in to helium and then that gets converted into higher molecules. We know this from spectrophotometer observation of the sun.

[Moonman62]

What’s really going to freak you out is we know what the interior of the Sun looks like.

[Moonman62]

I thought it was wax since it has the same color as the flame on a candle.

[Valin]

Ping

[dr_lew]

The only direct evidence we have of hydrogen fusion in the Sun is the solar neutrino flux, and it’s famously problematical.

[Moonman62]

It’s not as problematical as it used to be.

[dr_lew]

Don’t worry folks! Everything’s under control! As I understand it, they are leaning towards the “oscillating neutrinos” explanation. “It’s the physics, not the model.” I believe there are efforts underway to produce this effect experimentally.

It seems to be part of the general trend of “obscuram per obscurius” - ( explaining) “the obscure by means of the more obscure”. Cf. John Horgan’s book, The End of Science. He spoke to my condition.

[Moonman62]

“obscuram per obscurius”

That would explain your post.

[dr_lew]

“Neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanical phenomenon predicted by Bruno Pontecorvo whereby a neutrino created with a specific lepton flavor (electron, muon or tau) can later be measured to have a different flavor. The probability of measuring a particular flavor for a neutrino varies periodically as it propagates. Neutrino oscillation is of theoretical and experimental interest as observation of the phenomenon implies that the neutrino has a non-zero mass, which is not part of the original Standard Model of particle physics.”

Plain as the nose on your face. Do you claim to understand this better than I do? ( I don’t claim to understand it very well, but I do understand the basic QM oscillation paradigm. )

[dr_lew]

Well, it’s “obscurum per obscurius”. This is in Foreign Words and Phrases in Webster’s Ninth Collegiate. I was quoting from memory, and I did recall the exact english paraphrase. Woof!

[EndWelfareToday]

What do you think it burns?

I have no idea what it burns and until someone can bring us back a sample of what it burns neither does anyone else on this planet.