Introduced by John Maddox
How well do astrophysicists understand the sun? The answer ought to be ' very well,' because it is the nearest star and there are millions like it. Yet we cannot explain why it emits so few neutrinos and now new observations call into question some of stellar physics' most securely held dogmas. Does the sun derive its energy from the fusion of hydrogen into helium? Or could some other process explain the newly published Russian and British observations that the whole sun is ' ringing ' like a bell? Editor DAVID PATERSON