CREATION IN “ EMPTY SPACE”

Evening Star, Issue 20033, 26 November 1928, Page 8

CREATION IN “ EMPTY SPACE”

TORY OF " COSMIC RAYS ” The “Cosmic Kays” discovered by Professor ]’. A. Miilikan, of tlie California Institute of Technology, and his demonstration that their source is far outside of the earth, are now familiar to most readers. Professor Millikan also believes that he has shown that they aro produced by the union of electrons to form atoms of ordinary matter, and arc hence actual “ messengers of creation.” lint where is this creation taking place? In a paper, by himself and (i. Harvey Cameron, road before the National Academy of Science, and printed in its ‘Proceedings’ (Baltimore), Professor Millikan gives experimental evidence that it goes on not in stars, or in any place where matter is aggregated, but in space itself—once called “empty space,” but now shown, if his theory is correct, to be the scat of quite the most important processes going on in the whole extent of the universe. Say the authors:— “If it may be regarded ns established by the evidence hcrctolorc advanced that the cosmic rays aro the signals sent out through the heavens of the creation of the common elements out of positive and negative electrons, the next important question to attempt to answer is ‘ where are these creative processes going on’? To this question there aro two different sorts of possible answers, as follows; “ (1) In the stars where pressures, densities, and temperatures may, one or all, be enormously high, or else “ (2) In interstellar space where pressures, densities, and temperatures aro all extraordinarily low. “In both of these localities matter exists under extreme and as yot_ unexplored conditions, and in view of the history of the last thirty years of physics it would no longer be surprising if matter were again found to behave in some hitherto unknown and unexpected way as a new lick! of observation is entered. “ Of the two foregoing alternatives we think it possible to eliminate the first and to establish the second with considerable definiteness, and that for the two following reasons:— “First: If the mere presence of matter in large quantifies and at high temperatures favoured in any way the atom-building processes which give rise to the cosmic rays, then it is obviously to be expected that the sun, in view of its closeness, would send to the earth enormously more of them than could any other star. Put the laet is that all observers are agreed that the change from midday to midnight does nob influence at all the intensity of the cosmic rays. This can only mean that the conditions existing in and alxiut the sun, and presumably.also in and about other stars as well, aro unfavourable to the atom-building processes which give rise to these rays. “Since, however,, the rays do como to us at all times, day and night, and, according to all observers, at least very nearly' equally from all directions—according to some, as accurately as they have as yet iteen able to make the measurements —there is scarcely any escape from the conclusion that the atom-building processes giving rise to the cosmic rays are favoured by the conditions existing in interstellar space. Wo may not only conclude quite definitely that the stars aro not the sources of the cosmic rays, but also that the main atom-building processes probably do not take place inside of stars at all.

“ Slocond ; Tho foregoing conclusions

may also I’C arrived at Iroin an entirely different mode or approach—namely, from our measurements of the cosmic rays. The hardest rays which we have observed are completely absorbed in going through 70 metres of uatei. ° ‘‘This means that, even if the atombuilding processes went on inside a star, t’ho resulting cosmic radiations could not possibly get out. but would all bo frittered away in heat before s:ivc in "the ui those rays that originated in the star’s very oi.lonnost skin. “ lint wo Jiavo also found that the total energy coming into the earth s atmosphere in the form of cosmic rays is about one-tenth the total heat and 11-jrht energy coining to tho earth iroin Uic stnrs, exclusive of the sihk J his last fact means Hint if the cosmic rays have their origins within the stars they cannot, even at the points of their origin, have an intensity more than ten Hines that which they have when they reach the earth’s atmosphere. “ In other words, it the stars arc the sources of the observed cosmic rays, no atom-building processes can be going on in their interiors. “ It is, however, so altogether absurd to suppose that atom-building processes are going on actively lit tbo surlaco ot a star, mid down to a depth of a hundred meters, and then suddenly slop there, tlnii; wo arc forced to tho concliibion that the observed cosmic rays do not originate in the stars at all, but that they' must originate under the extreme influences ol exactly the opposite sort existing in interstellar space. These considerations, arising Iroin two entirely new points of view, force the authors to conclude, they say, that the heat output of the stars must he derived from an entirely different source from the atom-building processes which produce the cosmic rays. J hey consequently believe that the Pjocess of energy emission by atom-building docs nob take place, in the stars at all. To quote further; “ Eddington and deans have found the source of stellar beat not. in an atom-building process, but rather m nu atom-annihilating process which, they assume to tie going on in the interior of stars, positive electrons being thought to be continually transforming (heir entire mass into ether waves. “That the atom-buildmg processes responsible for the cosmic rays, a.s distinct from the atom-destroying process just considered, actually occur, as our experiments definitely show, outside the stars, or at least, where the rays produced by them can get to us, and in an energv that is of the same order ot magnitude as that of the beat poured out by tbo star, is an extraordinarily illuminating fact. For it suggests at once the following incomplete cycle, each dement in which now lias the experimental credentials indicated in the brackets;

“(]) Positive and negative electrons exist in "rent abundance in interstellar space (see the evidence of the spectroscope). “ (2) These electrons condense into atoms under the influence of the conditions existing in outer space—viz,, absence of temperature and high, dispersion (see the evidence of the cosmic rays). “(,')) These atoms ilien aggregate under their gravitational forces into stars (see the evidence of the telescope) . •“ (4) In the interior of stars, under tlio influence of the enormous pressures, densities, and temperatures existing there, an occasional positive electron, presumably in the nucleus of »t heavy atom, falls into complete coincidence with a. negative—i-c., translorms its entire mass into an ethor pulse the energy of which, when frittered away in heat, maintains the temperature of the star and furnishes most of the supply of light and heat which it pours out (see the evidence of the lifetimes of the stars).

“ The foregoing is as far as tlic experimental evidence enables ns to go: but Iho recent discovery of llio second element of the above unfinished cycle—namely, that the supply of positive and negative electrons is being used up continually in the creation of atoms, the signals of whoso birth constitutes tho cosmic rays, at once raises imperiously the question as to why the process is still going on at all after the eons dur'ing which it Ims apparently been _in process—or hotter, why the building stones of the atoms have not all been used up long ago. And the only possible answer seems to b© to complete the cycle, and to assume that these building stones .are continually being replenished throughout the heavens by the condensation, with the aid of some as yet wholly unknown mechanism, of radiant heat into positive and negative electrons.”