Posted on 07/17/2002 11:33:32 PM PDT by per loin
| Source: | University Of Missouri-Rolla (http://www.umr.edu) | ||
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| Date: | Posted 7/17/2002 | ||
The Sun: A Great Ball Of Iron? For years, scientists have assumed that the sun is an enormous mass of hydrogen. But in a paper presented before the American Astronomical Society, Dr. Oliver Manuel, a professor of nuclear chemistry at UMR, says iron, not hydrogen, is the sun's most abundant element. Manuel claims that hydrogen fusion creates some of the sun's heat, as hydrogen -- the lightest of all elements -- moves to the sun's surface. But most of the heat comes from the core of an exploded supernova that continues to generate energy within the iron-rich interior of the sun, Manuel says. "We think that the solar system came from a single star, and the sun formed on a collapsed supernova core," Manuel says. "The inner planets are made mostly of matter produced in the inner part of that star, and the outer planets of material form the outer layers of that star."
Manuel's theory that the solar system was born catastrophically out of a supernova goes against the widely-held belief among astrophysicists that the sun and planets were formed 4.5 billion years ago in a relatively ambiguous cloud of interstellar dust. Iron and the heavy element known as xenon are at the center of Manuel's efforts to change the way people think about the solar system's origins. Born of a supernova Manuel believes a supernova rocked our area of the Milky Way galaxy some five billion years ago, giving birth to all the heavenly bodies that populate the solar system. Analyses of meteorites reveal that all primordial helium is accompanied by "strange xenon," he says, adding that both helium and strange xenon came from the outer layer of the supernova that created the solar system. Helium and strange xenon are also seen together in Jupiter. Manuel has spent the better part of his 40-year scientific career trying to convince others of his hypothesis. Back in 1975, Manuel and another UMR researcher, Dr. Dwarka Das Sabu, first proposed that the solar system formed from the debris of a spinning star that exploded as a supernova. They based their claim on studies of meteorites and moon samples which showed traces of strange xenon. Data from NASA's Galileo probe of Jupiter's helium-rich atmosphere in 1996 reveals traces of strange xenon gases -- solid evidence against the conventional model of the solar system's creation, Manuel says. Editor's Note: The original news release can be found at http://web.umr.edu/~newsinfo/ironsun.html
We don't call 'em "strange", dude... We say they have "alternative lifestyles". Get it straight.
What is Isotopically Strange Xenon?
"Isotopically strange xenon (ISX) is strongly enriched in the p- and r-isotopes relative to solar and terrestrial xenon..."
So it's an isotope. I dunno what p- and r- refer to. Chemist-freak talk.
Er, no. A Solar Neutrino Unit is defined by the detector medium, being one measured solar neutrino interaction per 1036 atoms in the "fiducial volume" (sensitive part) of the detector. For a chlorine-based experiment, you measure something like 2 SNU; for a gallium-based experiment, you measure more like 80 SNU. I'm not sure about SNO's SNUs.
His hypothesis isn't so outrageous. However, a classic symptom of kookdom is a continuing attempt to convince others. Real science doesn't work that way. Scientists adopt theories, not because someone convinces them but because the theories are useful.
I'm not a physicist, but I believe it can be explained away as a complement to the Rosey O'Donnell theory where a big ball of fat stayed popular for almost a decade.
You've described nothing that a 3-week regimen of Diflucan wouldn't cure.
It would probably be close to that of H2O, assuming that the crystalline detector form doesn't affect the interaction cross-section that much.
OBTW, it's spelled snow.
(evil grin...)
It has to do with isotope ratios. Xe has nine naturally occuring isotopes, with masses from 124, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, and 136 Daltons. The ratio of these isotopes' occurence depends on the nuclear reactions going on in the star to form the Xe.
The different types have to do with the different chains of nuclear reactions leading to certain distributions of isotopes...
So, alternative lifestyle Xenon learns it from its parent nuclei. Remember this when other elements try to legalize unusual reaction pathways...
Yeah, that one's so yesterday.
Everybody knows that James T. Kirk was the only one to ever solve that problem.
Darned if I know.
But if you stare at it long enough, a whole host of ideas will come to mind.
</Obscure reference to a (cough! cough!)classic post>
Finally something I understand.
That's the bartenders guide on Deep Space Nine, right?
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