Open AccessIII. Bakerian lecture, 1917. — The configurations of rotating compressible masses
Publication year - 1919
Publication title -
philosophical transactions of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical or physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9258
pISSN - 0264-3952
DOI - 10.1098/rsta.1919.0003
Subject(s) - cosmogony , compressibility , homogeneous , homogeneity (statistics) , ellipsoid , physics , classical mechanics , cosmology , theoretical physics , astrophysics , astronomy , mathematics , mechanics , statistical physics , statistics
1. On the supposition that astronomical matter may be treated as incompressible and homogeneous, a single star rotating freely in stable equilibrium can be spheroidal or ellipsoidal, but of no other shape, while Darwin has shown that both components of a binary star must be very approximately of the ellipsoidal shape. Both for the interpretation of astronomical observations and for the more general purposes of cosmogony, it becomes of importance to examine how the sequence of figures assumed by an ideal homogeneous mass will be modified by the compressibility and non-homogeneity of actual astronomical matter.