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SOLAR ABUNDANCES OF THE ELEMENTS
Author(s) -
Manuel O.K.,
Hwaung Golden
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
meteoritics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 0026-1114
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.1983.tb00822.x
Subject(s) - noble gas , fractionation , abundance (ecology) , isotope , hydrogen , solar wind , astrobiology , mass independent fractionation , solar system , abundance of the chemical elements , chemistry , formation and evolution of the solar system , isotope fractionation , atomic physics , physics , plasma , nuclear physics , organic chemistry , fishery , biology
The isotopic compositions of noble gases in the solar wind show high enrichments of light isotopes. When corrected for mass fractionation all five noble gases there can be resolved in terms of the two primitive noble gas components that have been identified in planetary solids. Reasons are presented for assigning the fractionation to a solar process that selectively enriches lighter nuclei at the surface of the Sun. When abundances of the elements at the Sun's surface are corrected for this fractionation, it is shown that atomic abundances for major elements in the bulk Sun are (in decreasing order): Fe, Ni, O, Si, S and Mg. Solar elements at about the 1% atomic abundance level include He, C, Ne, Ca and Cr. These results suggest that fusion of hydrogen is probably not the Sun's primary energy source.