STAR GAZERS CLAIM NEW DISCOVERY

Two Harvard astronomers, Dr. D. H. Menzel and L. H. Aller '39, reported to the American Astronomical Society last week that star "shells" are made of the same elements as stars themselves. They found that the planetary nebulae, which are great clouds of gas surrounding the very hot O-type stars, are composed chiefly of hydrogen, helium, carbon nitrogen, and oxygen.

These are the same five elements which play the important role of furnace men in the sun and most other stars. In the well-established carbon cycle, originally proposed by Dr. Hans Bethe of Cornell University, hydrogen is the fuel and helium the ash of stars, while carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are the elements which keep the process going.

Menzel and Aller, obtaining their results from a study of "enhanced" and "forbidden" lines in the spectra of planetaries, view the new findings as confirming their belief that the same proportion of elements make up all things in the universe.