Abstract
MR. FLETCHER MOULTON is quite correct in stating that the shift of the spectral lines varies as mass/radius, but his expectation of spectral shifts measured by hundreds or thousands of kilometres per second does not appear to be justified. All the evidence available, deduced from visual binaries, Algol variables, and spectroscopic binaries, points to the conclusion that the masses of the stars vary between much narrower limits than their brightness. We have no clear evidence of any star having a mass so great as forty times that of the sun; moreover, the most massive stars known to us are apparently in a much more diffused state than the sun, so that the ratio of spectral shifts is much less than that of masses.
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CROMMELIN, A. The Einstein Theory and Spectral Displacement. Nature 104, 532 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/104532d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104532d0
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