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Copernicus hydrogen data confirm theory

JUN 01, 1973

DOI: 10.1063/1.3128091

The Copernicus Orbiting Astronomical Observatory has found that in some stellar clouds much of the hydrogen is in the molecular state and that in others essentially none of the hydrogen is molecular. Such “all‐or‐nothing” behavior had been predicted by David Hollenbach, Michael Werner and Edwin Salpeter of Cornell University in a detailed calculation published in 1971. The Copernicus results were reported by a Princeton group (Lyman Spitzer, J. F. Drake, E. B. Jenkins, Donald C. Morton, John B. Rogerson and Donald G. York) in one of five papers on OAO results appearing in the 1 May issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

This Content Appeared In
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Volume 26, Number 6

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