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of Space.
"Local space-permeation by calcium is due to the fad that it escapes from the solar photosphere, in modified form by literally riding the outgoing sunbeams. "(462)
How many of us have been puzzled by the section in The Urantia Book entitled "Calcium, the Wanderer of Space?" Well, the main human sources used in composing this presentation have been discovered--thanks to the unique gifts of reader, Matthew Block, and his dedicated and unrelenting utilisation of those gifts in tracking down some of the "human concepts" (17), "human thought patterns"" (1343), and "cosmological statements" defined in the book as "never inspired." (1109) That source was an "Evening Discussion" course, entitled "Stars and Atoms," presented by Sir Arthur Eddington to the British Association in Oxford in August, 1926. In the hope that some adequately qualified person among our readers will now be inspired to make a comparative analysis of Eddington's and The Urantia Book's concepts about the wandering stone of the cosmos, relevant extracts from Eddington's lectures are appended. It appears to be available on microfilm from Ohio State University, but, if necessary, we at Innerface International, Australia, undertake to provide a copy of what we have.
From "Stars and Atoms" by Sir Arthur Eddington (Yale University Press, New Haven; Oxford University Press, London.)
P. 66. Just as the spectroscope can tell us that the sun is turning around...so it can tell us that certain stars arc wandering round an orbit, and therefore are under the influence of a second star which may or may not be visible itself. But here again we sometimes find ''fixed'' (spectral) lines which do not change with the others. Therefore somewhere between the star and the telescope there exists a stationary medium which imprints these lines on the light. This time it is not the earth's atmosphere (as it is with oxygen). These lines belong to two elements, calcium and sodium, neither of which occur in the atmosphere. Moreover, the calcium is in a smashed state, having lost one of its electrons, and the conditions in our atmosphere are not such as would cause this loss. There seems to be no doubt that the medium containing the sodium and ionized calcium--and no doubt many other elements which do not show themselves--is separate from the earth and the star. It is the "fullness" of interstellar space aready mentioned. Light has to pass one atom per cubic inch all the way from the star to the earth, and it will pass quite enough atoms during its journey of many hundred billion miles to imprint these dark lines on its spectrum.
At first there was a rival interpretation. It was thought that the lines were produced in a cloud attached to the star-forming a kind of aureole round it. The two components travel in orbits round each other, but their orbital motion need not disturb a diffuse medium filling and surrounding the combined system. This was a very reasonable suggestion, but it could be put to the test. The test was again velocity Although either component can move periodically to and fro within the surrounding cloud of calcium and sodium, it is clear that its average approach to us or recession from us taken over a long time must agree with that of calcium and sodium if the star is not to leave its halo behind. Professor Plaskett with the 72-inch reflector at the Dominion Observatory, B.C., carried out this test. He found that the secular or average rate of approach of the star was in general quite different from the rate shown by the fixed calcium or sodium lines... Plaskett went further and showed that whereas the stars themseves had all sorts of individual velocities, the material of the fixed lines had the same or nearly the same velocity in all parts of the sky, as though it were one continuous medium throughout interstellar space. I think there can be no doubt that this research demonstrates the existence of a cosmic cloud pervading the stellar system. The fullness of interstellar space becomes a fact of observation and no longer a theoretical conjecture.
The system of the stars is floating in an ocean... an ocean that is so far material that one atom or thereabouts occurs in each cubic inch. It is a placid ocean without much relative movement; currents exist, but they are of a minor character and do not attain the high speeds commonly possessed by the stars. Its this concept at variance with our Big Bangers' view of the expanding universe?]
p. 67/9...Why are calcium atoms ionized?...even in the depths of space. . .some of the light-waves are quite powerful enough to wrench a first or second electron away from the calcium atom...(although) only very infrequently... The other side of the question is the rate of repair, and in this connection the low density of the cosmic cloud is the deciding factor. The atom has so few opportunities for repair. Roving through space the atom meets an electron only about once a month, and it by no means follows that it will capture the first one it meets... a calculation indicates that most of the calcium atoms in interstellar space have lost two electrons; these atoms do not interfere with the light and give no visible spectrum. The affixed lines" are produced by atoms temporarily in a better state of repair with only one electron missing; they cannot amount at any moment to more than one-thousandth of the whole number, but even so they will be sufficiently numerous to produce the observed absorption.
P. 70. The Sun's Chromosphere
...we are back to the outer parts of the sun. Fig. 10 shows one of the huge prominence flames which from time to time shoot out of the sun. The flame in this picture was about
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