Images by Date
Images by Category
Solar System
Stars
Exoplanets
White Dwarfs
Supernovas
Neutron Stars
Black Holes
Milky Way Galaxy
Normal Galaxies
Quasars
Galaxy Clusters
Cosmology/Deep Field
Miscellaneous
Images by Interest
Space Scoop for Kids
4K JPG
Multiwavelength
Sky Map
Constellations
Photo Blog
Top Rated Images
Image Handouts
Desktops
Fits Files
Image Tutorials
Photo Album Tutorial
False Color
Cosmic Distance
Look-Back Time
Scale & Distance
Angular Measurement
Images & Processing
AVM/Metadata
Image Use Policy
Web Shortcuts
Chandra Blog
RSS Feed
Chronicle
Email Newsletter
News & Noteworthy
Image Use Policy
Questions & Answers
Glossary of Terms
Download Guide
Get Adobe Reader
More Information
Normal Stars & Star Clusters
X-ray Astronomy Field Guide
Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Questions and Answers
Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Chandra Images
Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Related Podcasts
Tour: NASA's Chandra Catches Spider Pulsars Destroying Nearby Stars
Download Image

More Information

More Images
Illustration of Convection in Sun-like Star
(Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)


Related Images
V471 Tauri
V471 Tauri
(30 Jan 04)
44i Bootis
44i Bootis
(21 Nov 01)
Neon Abundance in Nearby Stars:
Chandra Discovery Solves Solar Paradox


Neon Abundance in Nearby Stars
Credit: Spectrum: NASA/CXC/J.Drake & P.Testa; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Sometimes you have to leave home to really appreciate it. A pair of scientists tried a variation on this theme when they used Chandra observations of stars hundreds of light years from Earth to better understand the Sun, which is a mere 8 light minutes (93 million miles) away.

The problem was the vexing question as to how much neon the Sun contains. This seemingly esoteric bit of knowledge turns out to be important to scientists seeking to understand how the Sun works. And the Sun, as the nearest star and a fairly average star, is an obvious starting point toward understanding how most of the other stars in the Universe work.

Neon, along with atoms of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, plays an important role in regulating the rate at which energy flows from nuclear reactions in the Sun's core to its surface. The character of the energy flow changes dramatically about 125,000 miles from the surface on the Sun, where the stately diffusion of heat suddenly converts to a convective motion much like the unstable air in a thunderstorm (see illustration).

The location of this turbulent region, called the convection zone, has been deduced to fairly high precision from the study of oscillations of the surface of the Sun (a technique called helioseismology in analogy of the use of oscillations of the Earth to study its interior). The location of the convection zone can also be deduced to equal precision from theoretical calculations based on among other things, the abundance of neon.

This is where astrophysicists get heartburn. The two determinations disagree. Several scientists have proposed that the paradox could be resolved if the solar abundance of neon is in fact about three times larger than the currently accepted value. This value is based on indirect estimates, since gas at the relatively cool 6,000 degree Celsius surface temperature of the Sun gives off no characteristic radiation at optical wavelengths.

However, a gas heated to millions of degrees produces a distinct neon signal in X-rays. The upper atmospheres, or coronas, of stars like the Sun have temperatures of millions of degrees, so the solar corona would seem to be a good place to settle the argument (not with Chandra -- the bright solar radiation would irreparably damage the telescope).

Unfortunately, the solar X-rays come from numerous localized loops of hot gas that vary from location to location and time to time, complicating the interpretation of the data on neon. Jeremy Drake of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA and his colleague Paola Testa of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, came up with an ingenious approach to the problem. They used Chandra to measure the neon abundance in 21 Sun-like stars within a distance of 400 light years (see, e.g. the spectrum of II Pegasi in the inset).

The relative amount of neon in these stars was, on average, almost three times more neon than is measured for the Sun, just the amount needed to bring the solar oscillation observations and the theoretical model into agreement. So, for the moment, astrophysicists can feel that their model of the Sun may be okay after all, and they can continue to boldly extrapolate this understanding to the rest of the Universe.

Fast Facts for Neon Abundance in Nearby Stars:
Credit  Spectrum: NASA/CXC/J.Drake & P.Testa; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Category  Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Observation Dates  The 21 objects in this survey were observed between September 17, 1999 and August 15, 2002.
Observation Time  Total observation time for the objects in this survey was 0 hours
Obs. IDs  6-12, 14-17, 601, 604-5, 609, 636, 974, 1252, 1451, 1885, 1887, 1890-2, 1894, 2388, 2527-34, 3403, 3410, 49899
Instrument  ACIS/HETG
References neon
Distance Estimate  Objects in this survey range from 4.2 to 440 light years away.
Release Date  July 27, 2005