The chemical make-up of the Sun: A 2020 vision

Vol. 653
Sect. 9. The Sun and the Heliosphere

The chemical make-up of the Sun: A 2020 vision

Accurate knowledge of the solar elemental abundances is crucial for an extremely broad range of astrophysics research topics, as the chemical composition of essentially all cosmic objects is relative to the solar one. Asplund et al. reassessed the solar abundances of all 83 long-lived elements, using highly realistic solar modeling and state-of-the-art spectroscopic analysis techniques, coupled with the best available atomic data and observations. Their results confirm the persistence of the so-called solar modeling problem, that is a discrepancy between helioseismology and solar interior models calculated with solar metallicity determined from spectroscopy. The results of Asplund et al. strengthen the suggestion of shortcomings with the opacities and/or treatment of mixing below the convection zone in existing standard solar models.