(10,000°) would be a fall of about 5000°, which is quite inadmissible, for the resulting change of spectrum would produce a
star. The required change of pressure is also too great to be possible: this subject cannot profitably be discussed here, and reference should be made to[Chapter X]. The existence of a strontium cloud has been suggested[464] by analogy with the “calcium cloud,” and might possibly provide an explanation, as it would furnish a low temperature for the strontium without unduly lowering the temperature for the star in general. The observation of stationary strontium lines would materially strengthen this argument, but they have not so far been recorded. The fact that the strontium stars are scattered, and not concentrated in any one part of the sky, reduces the probability of this suggestion.
(3) Abnormal Abundance.—Abnormal abundance has been progressively abandoned as an explanation of the various phenomena of stellar spectra, and that it is the true interpretation of strontium peculiarities seems somewhat unlikely. For the silicon stars, unusual abundance is probably an untenable hypothesis, since the great strength of the Si+ lines is apparently not accompanied by increase in the silicon line, which should presumably occur if pure abundance is the cause of the increased strength of the ionized silicon lines. Abnormal strength of silicon in the cooler stars, doubly ionized silicon in the early
stars, or triply ionized silicon in the
stars, has not been observed, and it is not very probable that, if silicon is unevenly distributed in the universe, the irregularity would be revealed in stars at one temperature only.
Such considerations point to the problem of the silicon and strontium stars as one involving the atom and its energy supply, rather than an abnormal distribution of the element in question. It is likely that the problem of classifying the
