PT128.S4.P3.Q17 > Analytics

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In the early 1900s, most astronomers mistakenly believed that 66 percent of the sun's substance was iron. ███

Old perspective · Sun was mostly made of iron

Payne's perspective · Sun is mostly hydrogen and helium

Payne's view initially was resisted by astronmers. But eventually it was accepted by them.

Evidence supporting old perspective · Known asteroids contain iron, and spectroscopy

Spectroscopy involves identifying chemical from light patterns. This seemed to show that sun was mostly iron.

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Puzzling aspect of old perspective · How could something made mostly of iron generate the high energy output of the sun?

Kelvin's answer · Sun was contracting, which raised sun's temperature and generated energy

Payne's response · Fossil record showed Kelvin's answer was wrong; need to re-examine the iron theory

If sun contracted as Kelvin said, the sun would be much younger than fossil record showed it was. So, iron theory might be wrong and we need to look at the spectroscopic evidence again.

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Payne's interpretation of evidence · Spectroscopic data consistent with sun being 90% hydrogen and the rest mostly helium

Although sun has some iron, preconceptions about sun being iron led to prior interpretation that sun was mostly iron.

Astronomers' response · Payne was looking only at outer layer of sun

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Confirmation of Payne's perspective · Later discovery of nuclear fusion helped confirm Payne was right

During Payne's time, we didn't know how something mostly helium/hydrogen could produce as much energy the sun. Now, we know that the sun's energy is produced by nuclear fusion.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

17.

Based on the information in ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████

The fact that ███████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████████████ ███ ███ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████

Supported, because we’re told the reason scientists rejected Payne’s findings related to the inability to understand how hydrogen and helium could produce the sun’s energy.

83%

Previous to Payne, ████████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ███ █████████ ████ █████████

We have no reason to think anyone “deliberately” disregarded data suggesting the sun contained hydrogen. They may simply have not realized the evidence could be interpreted that way.

The "iron" hypothesis █████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███████

We have no reason to think that Kelvin’s support helped the “iron” hypothesis be accepted for so long.

The resistance to ███ ████████ ████ █████ ███████████ █████ ████████████ ███████████ ██ ████████████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ █████████ █████████

We have no reason to think that the reactions of scientists to Payne is not typical of how science operates.

The discovery of ███████ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████

We have no reason to think that Payne helped speed up discovery of nuclear fusion.

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