Comprendre l atmosphere du Soleil et celles des etoiles variables a la fin du 19e siecle or, Understanding the Sun and variable stars atmospheres at the end of the 19th Century

TL;DR

This paper examines the late 19th-century efforts to understand the atmospheres of the Sun and variable stars, highlighting interdisciplinary approaches blending astronomy, physics, and chemistry.

Contribution

It critically analyzes Albert Brester's interdisciplinary methodology linking solar and stellar atmospheres at the end of the 19th century.

Findings

Questioned the Sun/variable stars analogy in historical context

Highlighted interdisciplinary methods in late 19th-century astronomy

Revealed the evolution of solar and stellar atmosphere studies

Abstract

Guy Boistel questions the Sun / variable stars analogy at the heart of the work of Dutch astronomer Albert Brester. The problem of interdisciplinarity appears in the objectification of the Sun at the end of the 19th century: it is by mixing astronomy, physics and chemistry that Brester tried to apply knowledge of the solar atmosphere to the understanding of variable stars, a fairly confidential field of study still at that time.