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transformed in the stars. However in this paper, no consideration is given to a role for neutrinos in the explosive conduction of energy away from the core during a supernova. Instead the authors proposed that when the temperature of a massive star rises to 7 billion degrees Kelvin, iron is rapidly converted to helium by a nuclear process that absorbs enormous amounts of energy, causing the core to cool and shrink catastrophically. It implodes in seconds and the outer collapsing envelope crashes into it. As the lighter elements are heated by the implosion, they burn so rapidly the envelope is blasted into space. But in this scheme, The Urantia Book's tiny particles devoid of electric charge have no major role.
Nothing further of significance for us Urantia Book researchers appears to have occurred until 1959. A lot more was then known about sub-atomic physics; the elusive neutrino and its antiparticle had been detected during the previous three years, and an enormous amount of hard information had become available from the research on the atomic and hydrogen bombs. In addition high speed computers with the capacity to carry out enormous amounts of arithmetic had come into being.
At the laboratory of Philip Morrison, a Ph.D student, Hing-Yee Chiu was given the task of taking a further look at the neutron star problem and came up with the proposal that towards the end of its life, the core of a massive star would reach temperatures of about 3 billion degrees. By this time it was known that, at this temperature, electron-positron pairs should be formed and should give rise to neutrino-antineutrino pairs. Then, when the temperature rose high enough and an iron core developed, the flux of neutrino-antineutrino pairs would be able to carry off the explosive energy of the star in a single day.
Before 1960, no hard evidence for the neutron star
All this work was strictly theoretical, the neutron star still being a construct of the human imagination. Distinguished Russian astrophysicist, Igor Novikov, has written, "Apparently no searches in earnest for neutron stars or black holes were attempted by astronomers before the 1960's. It was tacitly assumed that these objects were far too eccentric and most probably were the fruits of theorists' wishful thinking. Preferably, one avoided speaking about them. Sometimes they were mentioned vaguely with a remark yes, they could be formed, but in all likelihood this had never happened. At any rate, if they existed, then they could never be detected."
Acceptance of the existence of neutron stars gained ground slowly with discoveries accompanying the development of radio-astronomy. The Crab nebula played a central role as ideas about it emerged in the decade, 1950-1960. Originally observed as an explosion in the sky by Chinese astronomers in the year 1054, the Crab nebula became the focus of attention when, in 1958, Walter Baade reported visual observations suggesting moving ripples in its nebulosity. When sensitive electronic devices replaced the photographic plate as a means of detection, the oscillation frequency of what was conjectured to be a white dwarf star at the center of the Crab nebula turned out to be about 30 times per second.
If a white dwarf with a diameter in the order of 1000 km revolved at even once per second it would fly apart. Hence this remarkable pulsation rate of 30 times per second indicated an object with a much, much smaller diameter and the only possible contender was the neutron star. Final acceptance came with pictures of the center of the Crab beamed back to earth by the orbiting Einstein X-Ray observatory in 1967.
The icing was put on the cake in 1987 when two laboratories deep under the earth with special equipment for the detection and study of neutrinos recorded a neutrino burst arriving on Urantia from a supernova occurring in our satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. I remember watching that supernova the night after it was reported and wondering whether a neutrino burst would be recorded on earth. Both of the detectors, one at Kamiokande in Japan, the other at Fairport, Ohio, recorded a twelve second burst on the recorders for their instruments, so finally proving beyond all doubt that the page 464 prophecies of The Urantia Book about the collapse of large suns were actual reality.
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In just under 350 words, these statements we have discussed from pp. 464 and 479 of The Urantia Book have correctly described events that occur in eleven different physical phenomena all of which were unconfirmed by Urantia science at the time they were described. Eight of these appear to have been original to the book, while the others were objects of speculation by Urantia's theoretical physicists. If there had been a Triple "A" committee, what chance did they have of making such predictions and coming up right each time? My own judgment is no chance, hence no committee.
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