After two decades of research, scientists are getting closer to finding out what substances the Sun – and therefore the entire universe – consists of. The Sun is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium.
Heavier elements such as oxygen and carbon are also found in the sun, but their amount is controversial. Ghost subatomic particles known as neutrinos show there is plenty of ‘metal’ in the Sun, according to new observations by researchers.
The term metal here is used by astronomers for all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. In this article, we are also talking about the heavy elements found in the Sun.
Livia Ludhova, a physicist at the Jülich Research Center in Germany, says that according to the results, the Sun “has a high percentage of metallic elements.”
Elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are very important for the formation of rock-iron-based planets such as Earth. Oxygen is the most abundant of these elements in the universe, followed by carbon, neon and nitrogen.
This is because astronomers typically use the Sun as a reference point for measuring elemental levels in other stars and galaxies, and the results of some measurement techniques give very different results in terms of the chemical composition of our star.
One technique uses vibrations inside the Sun to understand its internal structure and focuses on its high metal content, while another technique determines the content of the star by looking at how atoms on the surface of the Sun absorb light of certain wavelengths.
The use of this latest technique two decades ago has inflamed the current debate by suggesting that oxygen, carbon, neon and nitrogen levels in the Sun are 26 to 42 percent lower than an earlier detection.
Another method that could put an end to the long-standing debate recently starred using the solar neutrino:.These particles are caused by nuclear reactions in the Sun’s core, which convert hydrogen into helium.
About 1 percent of the sun’s energy comes from reactions involving carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, which convert hydrogen into helium but are not used in the process. The more carbon, nitrogen and oxygen there are in fact in the Sun, that is, the more neutrinos this cycle should logically emit.
In 2020, scientists announced that Borexino, an underground detector in Italy, had detected neutrinos originating from this carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle. Ludhova and her colleagues recorded a sufficient number of neutrinos to calculate that the carbon and nitrogen atoms together are as abundant as the hydrogen atoms in the Sun.
Although the above-mentioned ratio may seem small, this newly found one is much higher than the figures used by astronomers who estimate that the Sun contains a high level of metals.
This is 70 percent more than a low-metal Sun should have. “This is a great result, ” says Marc Pinsonneault, a meteorologist at Ohio State University in Columbus.
‘The team conducting the research was able to robustly demonstrate that the current low-metallicity solution is inconsistent with the data.’he continues his remarks.
The topic discussed here is bigger than the Sun. “We are discussing what substances the universe consists of, ” says Pinsonneault, “because the Sun is the place where we make a comparison of all our work.”
So if the Sun has much more carbon, nitrogen and oxygen than is currently thought, this also applies to the entire universe. Pinsonneault said: ‘This changes our understanding of how chemical elements are produced.
It tells us new things about how stars develop, how they live and die, “he says. And it reminds us that even the Sun, the most studied star, may still have secrets. What do you guys think?
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