Internal Constitution and Energy Generation of Stars

Abstract

As long ago as 1913 H. N. Russell was convinced as to the significance of his diagram for the study of stellar evolution. However, the interpretation of the diagram, and therewith a theory of stellar evolution based on observation, first became possible in conjunction with the study of the internal constitution of the stars. The older work of J. H. Lane (1870), A. Ritter (1878–89), R. Emden (whose Gaskugeln appeared in 1907) and others could be based essentially only upon classical thermodynamics. A. S. Eddington then succeeded in combining their results with the theory of radiative equilibrium and with the Bohr theory of atomic structure, which had meanwhile been developed. His book The internal constitution of the stars (Cambridge, 1926) formed the prelude to the whole development of modern astrophysics. We can grasp the basic ideas of Eddington’s theory with only a very modest use of mathematics: