A Brief History of Nuclear Astrophysics
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Almost Forgotten Anniversaries in 2019 Introduction
Almost Forgotten Anniversaries in 2019 Katharina Lodders Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Mc Donnell Center for the Space Sciences, Campus Box 1169, Washington University, Saint Louis MO 63130, USA Keywords: history, chemical elements, abundances Abstract: As we celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table, the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the meteorite falls of Allende and Murchison in 1969, other noteworthy science events with round birthdays seem to be overlooked and almost forgotten Several scientific organizations celebrate the birthdays of their foundation; and key events and discoveries related to meteoritics, astronomy, geo- and cosmochemistry, and nuclear sciences can be commemorated this year, including the anniversaries of the discoveries of eleven chemical elements, and the advancements of our knowledge of the elemental and isotopic abundances. Introduction. Introduction The 150th anniversary of the discovery of the periodic system of the elements by Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (8 Feb. 1834 – 2 Feb. 1907) and independently by Julius Lothar Meyer (19 August 1830 – 11 April 1895) is the reason for celebrating the International Year of the Periodic Table in 2019. Not only that, but several scientific organizations celebrate the birthdays of their foundation: The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1889), The American Astronomical Society (1899), the American Geophysical Union (1919), the Mineralogical Society of America (1919), and the International Astronomical Union IAU (1919). The anniversaries in 2019 give us reasons to reflect on the major impacts of space exploration. In 1969, the first men landed on the moon and Apollo 11 safely returned with lunar rocks for study. The same year was blessed by the fall of the important carbonaceous chondrites Allende and Murchison. -
Helium Mrs. Ahng the Second Lightest Element on Earth, Helium Is One Of
Helium Mrs. Ahng The second lightest element on Earth, Helium is one of the most important elements in our universe. It is the reason that we have sunlight, it makes balloons float, and used to cool down nuclear reactors. Although it is a simple noble gas with only two protons and two electrons, it is a powerful and essential resource. Discovered in1868 by astronomer Pierre Janssen while studying a solar eclipse; he noticed a yellow line around sun that had a wavelength that he had not seen before. English Astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer later named the element after the Greek word “Helios”, making the connection to how it was discovered. Helium only makes ups less than 1% of Earth’s atmosphere because of how light it is. It’s atomic mass is only 4.003, so the surrounding air is heavier than helium. An example of the difference in mass can be seen when comparing a helium filled balloon to a balloon filled with a mixture of atmospheric gases. The mass of the mixture is much heavier, and therefore is more effected by gravitational pull. Helium is found mostly in space in the core of stars, but it was also found on Earth in 1895 trapped underground. Scientists believe that the Helium that we harvest today was created during the creation of the universe, or the “Big Bang”. Only two electrons energize one orbital for this element, giving us the popular image for all atoms. With the outer orbital shell full, the element is referred to as inert and nonreactive. -
Arxiv:0906.0144V1 [Physics.Hist-Ph] 31 May 2009 Event
Solar physics at the Kodaikanal Observatory: A Historical Perspective S. S. Hasan, D.C.V. Mallik, S. P. Bagare & S. P. Rajaguru Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India 1 Background The Kodaikanal Observatory traces its origins to the East India Company which started an observatory in Madras \for promoting the knowledge of as- tronomy, geography and navigation in India". Observations began in 1787 at the initiative of William Petrie, an officer of the Company, with the use of two 3-in achromatic telescopes, two astronomical clocks with compound penduumns and a transit instrument. By the early 19th century the Madras Observatory had already established a reputation as a leading astronomical centre devoted to work on the fundamental positions of stars, and a principal source of stellar positions for most of the southern hemisphere stars. John Goldingham (1796 - 1805, 1812 - 1830), T. G. Taylor (1830 - 1848), W. S. Jacob (1849 - 1858) and Norman R. Pogson (1861 - 1891) were successive Government Astronomers who led the activities in Madras. Scientific high- lights of the work included a catalogue of 11,000 southern stars produced by the Madras Observatory in 1844 under Taylor's direction using the new 5-ft transit instrument. The observatory had recently acquired a transit circle by Troughton and Simms which was mounted and ready for use in 1862. Norman Pogson, a well known astronomer whose name is associated with the modern definition of the magnitude scale and who had considerable experience with transit instruments in England, put this instrument to good use. With the help of his Indian assistants, Pogson measured accurate positions of about 50,000 stars from 1861 until his death in 1891. -
George De Hevesy in America
Journal of Nuclear Medicine, published on July 13, 2019 as doi:10.2967/jnumed.119.233254 George de Hevesy in America George de Hevesy was a Hungarian radiochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1943 for the discovery of the radiotracer principle (1). As the radiotracer principle is the foundation of all diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures, Hevesy is widely considered the father of nuclear medicine (1). Although it is well-known that he spent time at a number of European institutions, it is not widely known that he also spent six weeks at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, in the fall of 1930 as that year’s Baker Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry (2-6). “[T]he Baker Lecturer gave two formal presentations per week, to a large and diverse audience and provided an informal seminar weekly for students and faculty members interested in the subject. The lecturer had an office in Baker Laboratory and was available to faculty and students for further discussion.” (7) There is also evidence that, “…Hevesy visited Harvard [University, Cambridge, MA] as a Baker Lecturer at Cornell in 1930…” (8). Neither of the authors of this Note/Letter was aware of Hevesy’s association with Cornell University despite our longstanding ties to Cornell until one of us (WCK) noticed the association in Hevesy’s biographical page on the official Nobel website (6). WCK obtained both his undergraduate degree and medical degree from Cornell in Ithaca and New York City, respectively, and spent his career in nuclear medicine. JRO did his nuclear medicine training at Columbia University and has subsequently been a faculty member of Weill Cornell Medical College for the last eleven years (with a brief tenure at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (affiliated with Cornell)), and is now the program director of the Nuclear Medicine residency and Chief of the Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics Section. -
Historical Development of the Periodic Classification of the Chemical Elements
THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERIODIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS by RONALD LEE FFISTER B. S., Kansas State University, 1962 A MASTER'S REPORT submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree FASTER OF SCIENCE Department of Physical Science KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 196A Approved by: Major PrafeLoor ii |c/ TABLE OF CONTENTS t<y THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITION 0? TEH-IS USED 1 The Problem 1 Statement of the Problem 1 Importance of the Study 1 Definition of Terms Used 2 Atomic Number 2 Atomic Weight 2 Element 2 Periodic Classification 2 Periodic Lav • • 3 BRIEF RtiVJiM OF THE LITERATURE 3 Books .3 Other References. .A BACKGROUND HISTORY A Purpose A Early Attempts at Classification A Early "Elements" A Attempts by Aristotle 6 Other Attempts 7 DOBEREBIER'S TRIADS AND SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATIONS. 8 The Triad Theory of Dobereiner 10 Investigations by Others. ... .10 Dumas 10 Pettehkofer 10 Odling 11 iii TEE TELLURIC EELIX OF DE CHANCOURTOIS H Development of the Telluric Helix 11 Acceptance of the Helix 12 NEWLANDS' LAW OF THE OCTAVES 12 Newlands' Chemical Background 12 The Law of the Octaves. .........' 13 Acceptance and Significance of Newlands' Work 15 THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOTHAR MEYER ' 16 Chemical Background of Meyer 16 Lothar Meyer's Arrangement of the Elements. 17 THE WORK OF MENDELEEV AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 19 Mendeleev's Scientific Background .19 Development of the Periodic Law . .19 Significance of Mendeleev's Table 21 Atomic Weight Corrections. 21 Prediction of Hew Elements . .22 Influence -
Revisiting One World Or None
Revisiting One World or None. Sixty years ago, atomic energy was new and the world was still reverberating from the shocks of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the first instinct of the administration and Congress was to protect the “secret” of the atomic bomb. The atomic scientists—what today would be called nuclear physicists— who had worked on the Manhattan project to develop atomic bombs recognized that there was no secret, that any technically advanced nation could, with adequate resources, reproduce what they had done. They further believed that when a single aircraft, eventually a single missile, armed with a single bomb could destroy an entire city, no defense system would ever be adequate. Given this combination, the world seemed headed for a period of unprecedented danger. Many of the scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project felt a special responsibility to encourage a public debate about these new and terrifying products of modern science. They formed an organization, the Federation of Atomic Scientists, dedicated to avoiding the threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation. Convinced that neither guarding the nuclear “secret” nor any defense could keep the world safe, they encouraged international openness in nuclear physics research and in the expected nuclear power industry as the only way to avoid a disastrous arms race in nuclear weapons. William Higinbotham, the first Chairman of the Association of Los Alamos Scientists and the first Chairman of the Federation of Atomic Scientists, wanted to expand the organization beyond those who had worked on the Manhattan Project, for two reasons. -
Von Richthofen, Einstein and the AGA Estimating Achievement from Fame
Von Richthofen, Einstein and the AGA Estimating achievement from fame Every schoolboy has heard of Einstein; fewer have heard of Antoine Becquerel; almost nobody has heard of Nils Dalén. Yet they all won Nobel Prizes for Physics. Can we gauge a scientist’s achievements by his or her fame? If so, how? And how do fighter pilots help? Mikhail Simkin and Vwani Roychowdhury look for the linkages. “It was a famous victory.” We instinctively rank the had published. However, in 2001–2002 popular French achievements of great men and women by how famous TV presenters Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff published they are. But is instinct enough? And how exactly does a great man’s fame relate to the greatness of his achieve- ment? Some achievements are easy to quantify. Such is the case with fighter pilots of the First World War. Their achievements can be easily measured and ranked, in terms of their victories – the number of enemy planes they shot down. These aces achieved varying degrees of fame, which have lasted down to the internet age. A few years ago we compared1 the fame of First World War fighter pilot aces (measured in Google hits) with their achievement (measured in victories); and we found that We can estimate fame grows exponentially with achievement. fame from Google; Is the same true in other areas of excellence? Bagrow et al. have studied the relationship between can this tell us 2 achievement and fame for physicists . The relationship Manfred von Richthofen (in cockpit) with members of his so- about actual they found was linear. -
Nuclear Physics
Nuclear Physics Overview One of the enduring mysteries of the universe is the nature of matter—what are its basic constituents and how do they interact to form the properties we observe? The largest contribution by far to the mass of the visible matter we are familiar with comes from protons and heavier nuclei. The mission of the Nuclear Physics (NP) program is to discover, explore, and understand all forms of nuclear matter. Although the fundamental particles that compose nuclear matter—quarks and gluons—are themselves relatively well understood, exactly how they interact and combine to form the different types of matter observed in the universe today and during its evolution remains largely unknown. Nuclear physicists seek to understand not just the familiar forms of matter we see around us, but also exotic forms such as those that existed in the first moments after the Big Bang and that exist today inside neutron stars, and to understand why matter takes on the specific forms now observed in nature. Nuclear physics addresses three broad, yet tightly interrelated, scientific thrusts: Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD); Nuclei and Nuclear Astrophysics; and Fundamental Symmetries: . QCD seeks to develop a complete understanding of how the fundamental particles that compose nuclear matter, the quarks and gluons, assemble themselves into composite nuclear particles such as protons and neutrons, how nuclear forces arise between these composite particles that lead to nuclei, and how novel forms of bulk, strongly interacting matter behave, such as the quark-gluon plasma that formed in the early universe. Nuclei and Nuclear Astrophysics seeks to understand how protons and neutrons combine to form atomic nuclei, including some now being observed for the first time, and how these nuclei have arisen during the 13.8 billion years since the birth of the cosmos. -
Network Map of Knowledge And
Humphry Davy George Grosz Patrick Galvin August Wilhelm von Hofmann Mervyn Gotsman Peter Blake Willa Cather Norman Vincent Peale Hans Holbein the Elder David Bomberg Hans Lewy Mark Ryden Juan Gris Ian Stevenson Charles Coleman (English painter) Mauritz de Haas David Drake Donald E. Westlake John Morton Blum Yehuda Amichai Stephen Smale Bernd and Hilla Becher Vitsentzos Kornaros Maxfield Parrish L. Sprague de Camp Derek Jarman Baron Carl von Rokitansky John LaFarge Richard Francis Burton Jamie Hewlett George Sterling Sergei Winogradsky Federico Halbherr Jean-Léon Gérôme William M. Bass Roy Lichtenstein Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael Tony Cliff Julia Margaret Cameron Arnold Sommerfeld Adrian Willaert Olga Arsenievna Oleinik LeMoine Fitzgerald Christian Krohg Wilfred Thesiger Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Eva Hesse `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas Him Mark Lai Clark Ashton Smith Clint Eastwood Therkel Mathiassen Bettie Page Frank DuMond Peter Whittle Salvador Espriu Gaetano Fichera William Cubley Jean Tinguely Amado Nervo Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Ferdinand Hodler Françoise Sagan Dave Meltzer Anton Julius Carlson Bela Cikoš Sesija John Cleese Kan Nyunt Charlotte Lamb Benjamin Silliman Howard Hendricks Jim Russell (cartoonist) Kate Chopin Gary Becker Harvey Kurtzman Michel Tapié John C. Maxwell Stan Pitt Henry Lawson Gustave Boulanger Wayne Shorter Irshad Kamil Joseph Greenberg Dungeons & Dragons Serbian epic poetry Adrian Ludwig Richter Eliseu Visconti Albert Maignan Syed Nazeer Husain Hakushu Kitahara Lim Cheng Hoe David Brin Bernard Ogilvie Dodge Star Wars Karel Capek Hudson River School Alfred Hitchcock Vladimir Colin Robert Kroetsch Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Stephen Sondheim Robert Ludlum Frank Frazetta Walter Tevis Sax Rohmer Rafael Sabatini Ralph Nader Manon Gropius Aristide Maillol Ed Roth Jonathan Dordick Abdur Razzaq (Professor) John W. -
The R-Process Nucleosynthesis and Related Challenges
EPJ Web of Conferences 165, 01025 (2017) DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/201716501025 NPA8 2017 The r-process nucleosynthesis and related challenges Stephane Goriely1,, Andreas Bauswein2, Hans-Thomas Janka3, Oliver Just4, and Else Pllumbi3 1Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 226, 1050 Brussels, Belgium 2Heidelberger Institut fr¨ Theoretische Studien, Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany 3Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Postfach 1317, 85741 Garching, Germany 4Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan Abstract. The rapid neutron-capture process, or r-process, is known to be of fundamental importance for explaining the origin of approximately half of the A > 60 stable nuclei observed in nature. Recently, special attention has been paid to neutron star (NS) mergers following the confirmation by hydrodynamic simulations that a non-negligible amount of matter can be ejected and by nucleosynthesis calculations combined with the predicted astrophysical event rate that such a site can account for the majority of r-material in our Galaxy. We show here that the combined contribution of both the dynamical (prompt) ejecta expelled during binary NS or NS-black hole (BH) mergers and the neutrino and viscously driven outflows generated during the post-merger remnant evolution of relic BH-torus systems can lead to the production of r-process elements from mass number A > 90 up to actinides. The corresponding abundance distribution is found to reproduce the∼ solar distribution extremely well. It can also account for the elemental distributions observed in low-metallicity stars. However, major uncertainties still affect our under- standing of the composition of the ejected matter. -
A Brief History of Nuclear Astrophysics
A BRIEF HISTORY OF NUCLEAR ASTROPHYSICS PART I THE ENERGY OF THE SUN AND STARS Nikos Prantzos Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris Stellar Origin of Energy the Elements Nuclear Astrophysics Astronomy Nuclear Physics Thermodynamics: the energy of the Sun and the age of the Earth 1847 : Robert Julius von Mayer Sun heated by fall of meteors 1854 : Hermann von Helmholtz Gravitational energy of Kant’s contracting protosolar nebula of gas and dust turns into kinetic energy Timescale ~ EGrav/LSun ~ 30 My 1850s : William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) Sun heated at formation from meteorite fall, now « an incadescent liquid mass » cooling Age 10 – 100 My 1859: Charles Darwin Origin of species : Rate of erosion of the Weald valley is 1 inch/century or 22 miles wild (X 1100 feet high) in 300 My Such large Earth ages also required by geologists, like Charles Lyell A gaseous, contracting and heating Sun 푀⊙ Mean solar density : ~1.35 g/cc Sun liquid Incompressible = 4 3 푅 3 ⊙ 1870s: J. Homer Lane ; 1880s :August Ritter : Sun gaseous Compressible As it shrinks, it releases gravitational energy AND it gets hotter Earth Mayer – Kelvin - Helmholtz Helmholtz - Ritter A gaseous, contracting and heating Sun 푀⊙ Mean solar density : ~1.35 g/cc Sun liquid Incompressible = 4 3 푅 3 ⊙ 1870s: J. Homer Lane ; 1880s :August Ritter : Sun gaseous Compressible As it shrinks, it releases gravitational energy AND it gets hotter Earth Mayer – Kelvin - Helmholtz Helmholtz - Ritter A gaseous, contracting and heating Sun 푀⊙ Mean solar density : ~1.35 g/cc Sun liquid Incompressible = 4 3 푅 3 ⊙ 1870s: J. -
I. I. Rabi Papers [Finding Aid]. Library of Congress. [PDF Rendered Tue Apr
I. I. Rabi Papers A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 1992 Revised 2010 March Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact Additional search options available at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms998009 LC Online Catalog record: http://lccn.loc.gov/mm89076467 Prepared by Joseph Sullivan with the assistance of Kathleen A. Kelly and John R. Monagle Collection Summary Title: I. I. Rabi Papers Span Dates: 1899-1989 Bulk Dates: (bulk 1945-1968) ID No.: MSS76467 Creator: Rabi, I. I. (Isador Isaac), 1898- Extent: 41,500 items ; 105 cartons plus 1 oversize plus 4 classified ; 42 linear feet Language: Collection material in English Location: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Summary: Physicist and educator. The collection documents Rabi's research in physics, particularly in the fields of radar and nuclear energy, leading to the development of lasers, atomic clocks, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to his 1944 Nobel Prize in physics; his work as a consultant to the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and as an advisor on science policy to the United States government, the United Nations, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during and after World War II; and his studies, research, and professorships in physics chiefly at Columbia University and also at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Selected Search Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.