10-11-2018, 04:50 PM
No need for an apology, Dan, things went off-topic for a good reason. In the meantime:
"Optical illusion" fooled us for a while
https://phys.org/news/2018-10-high-scand...black.html
"Now another group of astronomers from Lund University among others, in collaboration with UCLA in California, have found an explanation for the high levels of scandium, vanadium and yttrium. They argue that the so-called spectral lines presented last spring were actually an optical illusion. Spectral lines are used to find out which elements a star contains—by using its own light."
The latest results and analysis come from observations by the Keck Observatory on MK. Previous observations had suggested that there was an extraordinary abundance of elements in old stars near our Galactic Center which was difficult to explain, but it turns out that the most likely explanation is that the stars are cooler than expected and the hydrogen emission lines they produced mimicked emission from other elements.
"Optical illusion" fooled us for a while
https://phys.org/news/2018-10-high-scand...black.html
"Now another group of astronomers from Lund University among others, in collaboration with UCLA in California, have found an explanation for the high levels of scandium, vanadium and yttrium. They argue that the so-called spectral lines presented last spring were actually an optical illusion. Spectral lines are used to find out which elements a star contains—by using its own light."
The latest results and analysis come from observations by the Keck Observatory on MK. Previous observations had suggested that there was an extraordinary abundance of elements in old stars near our Galactic Center which was difficult to explain, but it turns out that the most likely explanation is that the stars are cooler than expected and the hydrogen emission lines they produced mimicked emission from other elements.