Abstract
THE measurement of the temperature of a star is one of the most difficult problems of physical astronomy. The difficulties are of two general kinds. In the first place, the very phrase, “the temperature of a star,” has no meaning: we may as well speak of the latitude of the land surface of the earth. There can be no doubt whatever that the temperature varies from one part of a star to another over an enormous range-probably thousands of times greater than the interval between the temperatures of liquid hydrogen and the electric furnace. Secondly, for experimental methods of measurement the only available data are wrapped up in an inconceivably small fraction of the total radiation of the star which reaches the earth after the possible wear and tear of many years' journey through interstellar space and our own atmosphere. From the character of that radiation we have to deduce the temperature of the star. From these two general sources difficulties of many kinds issue forth.
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DINGLE, H. The Temperatures of the Stars. Nature 112, 167–169 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112167a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112167a0