Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Nuclear Decay variation

Plasma Opacity and Optical Depth
ER — (archived)

Unfortunately, the time lag between the birth of a gamma photon during fusion in stellar interiors and the moment when it escapes the stellar atmosphere as a lower frequency photon is so long that it would be impossible to correlate orbital and fusion phenomena.

In the sun, for example, I understand it takes photons about ten thousand years to work themselves towards the photosphere, being absorbed and re-emitted countless times by every ion and stray electron encountered in the plasma on the way out. Any signal imposed by geometrical effects would be smeared out beyond recognition. Only something that can penetrate from the core to earth without interaction with the intervening matter (like a neutrino) would be useful for this sort of probe.

Then again, I've always wondered if there was any physical connecion between the susnpot cycle (approx 11 years) and Jupiter's sidereal period, 11.9 years. After all, the solar system has been described as the Sun, Jupiter, and assorted debris.

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