What is the composition of the Sun?

The sun - the star in the solar system and the source of energy and natural light for the Earth. But few know exactly what constitutes the Sun.

The sun is a large ball filled with hot air. In the Sun core region, this source of hot air is converted into energy. The energy then moves and spreads through the inner layers to the Sun's atmosphere, then continues to spread energy into the solar system in the form of heat and light.

In the hot air layer, hydrogen element accounts for 72%. Nuclear fusion converts hydrogen into many other chemical elements. In addition, the Sun also contains about 26% of helium elements together with elements such as oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, iron and silicon.

Picture 1 of What is the composition of the Sun?
Solar system

All of these chemical elements are formed in the Sun's core and account for 25% of the Sun's total weight. Meanwhile, gravity creates a great pressure and extremely high temperature in the Sun core area with a temperature of up to 15 million degrees Celsius. Hydrogen atoms are repressed and burnt, creating helium and Abundant energy source. The whole process is called nuclear fusion.

The energy source now mainly exists as photons, gamma ray neutrions and is transferred to the radiation zone. These photons may exist in the radiation zone about 1 million years before passing through the divider, or tachocline , between the radiation and convection regions. According to scientists, the Sun's magnetic field is made up of a magnetic dyamo in the tachocline layer.

Convection is considered the outermost layer in the area inside the Sun. Compared to the Sun's atmosphere, the convection is 200,000 km deep. However, the temperature in this area is very cool, suitable for heavy mass ions such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, calcium, and iron in the electron state. These electrons are blocked and capable of absorbing more heat, thereby creating a process of boiling or plasma transformation.

This metabolic activity makes the surface temperature - the bottom of the Sun atmosphere, also known as photosynthesis, increase rapidly. In the photosphere, energy is released in the form of sunlight. Sunlight penetrates the outer layers of the Sun's atmosphere including chromatography and corona rings before shining on Earth. The whole process takes place within 8 minutes.

For years astronomers have taken the time to study the composition of the Sun. As a result, scientists discovered 67 typical chemical elements. In particular, there are other chemical elements that contribute to the formation of the Sun but because the content is too small, the research devices have not been able to determine their names.

Of the 67 elements, there are 10 basic elements that form the Sun. On the total volume of solar, hydrogen accounted for 71%, 27.1% helium, 0.97% oxygen, 0.4% carbon, 0.096% nitrogen, 0.099% silicon, 0.076% magnesium, 0.058% iron, 0.014% iron , sulfur 0.04%.