Escape velocity = 618 km/s Deep in its core, the sun is extremely dense and hot, with temperature reaching over 15 million degrees Kelvin. Composition The sun is made up of a blazing combination of gases. Located at the centre of the solar system and influencing the motion of all the other bodies through its gravitational force is the Sun, which in itself contains more than 99 percent of the mass of the system. In her 1925 Ph.D. thesis work, Cecilia Payne invented modern methods of interpreting spectra of the sun and stars. It is the dominant body of the system, constituting more than 99 percent of its entire mass. Solar spectrum showing the dark absorption lines. The composition of the sun is 71% hydrogen, 27.1% helium and less than 2% of all other elements. In this review, we evaluate the current understanding of the solar photospheric composition. Composition of the Sun’s Atmosphere. It turns out that the Sun contains the same elements as Earth but not in the same proportions. As explained in Radiation and Spectra, we can use a star’s absorption line spectrum to determine what elements are present. * The Sun’s rotational period as observed from Earth is known as the synodic period . More specifically, our Sun is in a spiral arm called the Orion Spur that extends outward from the Sagittarius arm. The Sun, and everything that orbits it, is located in the Milky Way galaxy. The Sun's Composition. Because the Earth moves about 1 /12 of the way around the Sun while the Sun makes one rotation, the synodic period is somewhat greater than the period that would be observed … The center temperature is modeled to be 15.5 million K. The Sun is fueled by the proton cycle of nuclear fusion. These gases are actually in the form of plasma. For example, sodium lines as observed in the sun’s spectrum means that the sun’s atmosphere contains some sodiums atoms. The Sun is the source of an enormous amount of energy, a portion of which provides Earth with … This means the particles have an increased or reduced number of electrons. Ever since Newton showed that sunlight is a mixture of all colors, scientists have studied the Sun's spectrum. Furthermore, it is an essential reference standard against which the elemental contents of other astronomical objects are compared. The Sun's extremely hot outer layer, the corona, has a very different chemical composition from the cooler inner layers, but the reason for this has puzzled scientists for decades. Find out more about composition of the Sun, Earth and Moon! Composition of the Solar System. Sun – The sun is a star about 330,000 times the size of the earth. Let’s begin by asking what the solar atmosphere is made of. About 73% of the Sun’s mass is hydrogen, and another 25% is helium. CHEMICAL GEOLOGY --- ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE ELSEVIER Chemical Geology 120 (1995) 223-253 The composition of the Earth' W.F. McDonough"', S.-s. Sun a,b 'Research School ofEarth Sciences, TheAustralian National UnirersitY, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia bAustrahan Geological Suri,ey Organisation, GPO Box 378, Canberra, ACT 2601, .Australia Received 15 May 1994; revision accepted 9 … Sun, star around which Earth and the other components of the solar system revolve. Plasma is a state of matter similar to gas, but with most of the particles ionized. The Spectra of the Sun. It is composed of about ¾ hydrogen and ¼ helium, with a small percentage of other, heavier elements. The solar chemical composition is an important ingredient in our understanding of the formation, structure, and evolution of both the Sun and our Solar System. Joseph Fraunhofer. 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