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SciAm SpacePhysics - Aug-Sep20 2

The document discusses several recent scientific discoveries and the questions they raise. It notes that scientists have confirmed a long-standing theory about the sun's power through neutrino detections, satisfyingly matching evidence to explanation. However, this discovery and others about the universe's mass distribution and sources of fast radio bursts have also prompted new questions about details like the sun's composition and the early solar system, as well as larger cosmological phenomena. The author finds it intriguing that scientific progress leads to new inquiries, calling science an ongoing process of answering questions while inadvertently posing more.

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48 views1 page

SciAm SpacePhysics - Aug-Sep20 2

The document discusses several recent scientific discoveries and the questions they raise. It notes that scientists have confirmed a long-standing theory about the sun's power through neutrino detections, satisfyingly matching evidence to explanation. However, this discovery and others about the universe's mass distribution and sources of fast radio bursts have also prompted new questions about details like the sun's composition and the early solar system, as well as larger cosmological phenomena. The author finds it intriguing that scientific progress leads to new inquiries, calling science an ongoing process of answering questions while inadvertently posing more.

Uploaded by

aditya2053
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FROM

THE SPACE
EDITOR &PHYSICS
Your Opinion
Matters!
Help shape the future
of this digital magazine.
Let us know what you
think of the stories within
these pages by emailing us:
[email protected].
LIZ TORMES

The Scientific Question Machine


The title of this issue is a bit misleading. A fully explanatory and complete title would have gone something like:
“Scientists Confirm Long-Standing Theory of Sun’s Power, but As with All Science, Many Questions Remain and
New Ones Are Revealed.” Exhaustive, yes. Catchy? No. Though when it comes to attention-grabbing-if-slightly-truncat-
ed headlines, this one still holds water. As reporter Davide Castelvecchi reports, astrophysicists have long hypothe-
sized that a small amount of the sun’s energy is generated by a particular reaction involving carbon and nitrogen in the
star’s core, and can be detected by neutrino emissions (see “Neutrinos Reveal Final Secret of Sun’s Nuclear Fusion”).
It’s always extremely satisfying when a scientific explanation is finally confirmed by direct evidence. In this case, the way
that evidence was collected is fascinating, as are some of the further questions relevant to this research: What are the
precise composition and temperature of the sun? What was our star like before the rest of the solar system formed?
In science, it often goes that as soon as you’ve answered one question, you inadvertently have asked a dozen more.
Call that frustrating or intriguing as you will.
Conflicting evidence about the weight of the cosmos is fueling a growing debate among physicists over the forma-
tion of the universe (see “How Heavy Is the Universe? Conflicting Answers Hint at New Physics”). And the surprise
detection of radio bursts from within our own galaxy may help us resolve a larger cosmological phenomenon (see
“‘Magnetic Star’ Radio Waves Could Solve the Mystery of Fast Radio Bursts”). But, you guessed it, this discovery is On the Cover
inciting a host of new questions waiting to be answered. I, for one, am intrigued. Our sun, as seen by

SOHO ( ESA & NASA)


NASA’s Solar and
Andrea Gawrylewski Heliospheric Observatory
Senior Editor, Collections
[email protected]

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