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The Solar Oxygen Crisis

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the clearing-the-air dept.

Astrophysicist writes "The Astrophysical Journal this week published an article about the abundance of oxygen in the Sun. Oxygen is the third most abundant atom in the universe, behind hydrogen and helium. Most of the hydrogen and helium was formed in the Big Bang, which means that oxygen is the element most frequently produced by nuclear fusion reactions in the interior of the stars. The solar abundance of oxygen, which is key in astrophysics because of its use as a calibration reference for other objects, was thought to be well established since the 80s. However, recent evidence indicates that it has been overestimated by almost a factor of two. A revision of the solar oxygen abundance would have a cascading effect on other important elements, such as carbon, nitrogen and neon, whose abundance is only known relative to that of oxygen. In addition to the impact on the chemical composition of many stars, models of solar interior may require some reworking in order to be consistent with the new data."

6 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Only a Abstract? by bhima · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Pity that's just abstract. I'd like to read a little more on this.

    --
    Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  2. Crisis? by tigheig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I can see how this may involve the need to change some parts of the theories of how a star works I'm not sure I see how, either here or in the referenced paper in the Astrophysical Journal, this qualifies as a "crisis". In essence they're saying that the results of their current observations indicate that previous theories need to be modified. How is this is a crisis?

  3. Crisis? by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since when does needing to rethink a few scientific models, and go back and gather some data again now that we know we might have measured wrong constitue a crisis?

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  4. WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! by kramer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can we please reserve the term "crisis" for events where lives are at stake, and not when some astrophysicists are going to need to re-compute some scientific models?

    1. Re:WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! by MollyB · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Agreed. While we're at it, can we remove the slogan "war on (whatever)" and save war for its dismal-enough denotation?

  5. Re:Cue the /. Pseudo Scientists by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems to me that if a slashdot reader doesn't know who Feynman was, well, then they're in the wrong place.