stars have been developed from the blue stars, why do not the
thousands of lines in the spectra of the yellow and red stars
show in the spectra of the blue stars? Indeed, why do not the
elements so conspicuously present in the atmosphere of the red
stars show in the spectra of the gaseous nebulae? The answer is
that the conditions in the nebulae and in the youngest stars
are such that only the SIMPLEST ELEMENTS, like hydrogen and
helium, and in the nebulae nebulium, which we think are nearest
to the elemental state of matter, seem to be able to form or
exist in them; and the temperature must lower, or other
conditions change to the conditions existing in the older
stars, before what we may call the more complicated elements
can construct themselves out of the more elemental forms of
matter
A question frequently asked is this: if the yellow and red
stars have been developed from the blue stars, why do not the
thousands of lines in the spectra of the yellow and red stars
show in the spectra of the blue stars? Indeed, why do not the
elements so conspicuously present in the atmosphere of the red
stars show in the spectra of the gaseous nebulae? The answer is
that the conditions in the nebulae and in the youngest stars
are such that only the SIMPLEST ELEMENTS, like hydrogen and
helium, and in the nebulae nebulium, which we think are nearest
to the elemental state of matter, seem to be able to form or
exist in them; and the temperature must lower, or other
conditions change to the conditions existing in the older
stars, before what we may call the more complicated elements
can construct themselves out of the more elemental forms of
matter. The oxides of titanium and of carbon found in the red
stars, where the surface temperatures must be relatively low,
would dissociate themselves into more elemental components and
lose their identity if the temperature and other conditions
were changed back to those of the early helium stars. Lockyer"s
name is closely connected with this phenomenon of dissociation.
There is no evidence, to the best of my knowledge, that the
elements known in our Earth are not essentially universal in
distribution, either in the forms which the elements have in
the Earth, or dissociated into simpler forms wherever the
temperatures or other conditions make dissociations possible
and unavoidable.
