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This is a tricky proposition because we cannot see the interior of the Sun in
visible light. As a consequence, most of what we know about the interior of the
Sun (and hence stars) comes from well-crafted theory which has been tweaked and
improved through comparisons to observations.
Now let us pursue this issue in more detail.
- Given the equations of hydrostatic and thermal equilibrium one can
calculate the structure of the Sun if one uses what we know about nuclear
reactions, energy transport, how the pressure is generated, and some other
properties of the Solar materials. Once we specify these things, it is a
fairly straightforward exercise to calculate the structure of the interior of
the Sun.
The calculated structure of the Sun shown
The basic model of the Sun is constrained by because we have a very good
idea of the mass of the Sun and we have good numbers for the luminosity and
radius of the current Sun. However, this does not mean that we have the Sun
nailed. For example, because we cannot see the core of the Sun, we can fiddle
around a little with the assumed chemical composition of the core of the Sun.
By tweaking some parameters, we can match the observed properties of the Sun.
We would like to have more detailed tests of our theories theories of solar
structure.
- Tests of our theories of stellar structure
- Solar
Neutrino Experiments
- Solar Oscillations
- The Sun is like a bell in the sense that if you kick it, it
will ring (or oscillate). Furthermore, like a bell or a tuning fork, etc.,
the way in which the Sun rings (its pitch) is determined by the
detailed interior structure of the Sun.
- For the last 10 - 20 years, people have been studying Solar
oscillations much as seismologists on the Earth study the ringing of the
Earth after earthquakes.
- The observations serve as nice checks on our ideas of the structure of
the interior of the Sun.
- I believe, however, that the observations have simply tuned up our
understanding of the interior of the Sun and have not yet turned up
anything startling like the Solar Neutrino Experiments.
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