Physics
Scientific paper
Feb 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995conph..36...37t&link_type=abstract
Contemporary Physics, Vol. 36, No. 1, p. 37 - 48
Physics
1
Cosmology: Helium
Scientific paper
The element helium was discovered on Earth in March 1895, although its existence had been suggested much earlier by J.N. Lockyer after unidentified spectral lines had been observed in a solar eclipse in 1868. Helium plays a major role in astronomy and cosmology. As a radioactive decay product, it helped to establish the great age of the Earth. Nuclear reactions, producing helium from hydrogen, power most stars and nuclear reactions involving helium are important in late stages of stellar evolution. All stars and gas clouds appear to contain substantial amounts of helium and this observation, together with the discovery and properties of the cosmic microwave radiation, is one of the two factors leading to the current popularity of the hot big-bang cosmological theory. Because helium is such a strongly bound nucleus, a single secure identification of a star or a gas cloud devoid of helium would cause great difficulties for the theory.
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