Puricare Industrial Enterprises: CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE SUN - About 67 chemical elements have been detected in the sun. Hydrogen is the most abundant element, accounting for over 90% of the atoms and over 70% of solar mass. The next most abundant element is helium, which accounts for almost just under 9% of the atoms and about 27% of the mass. There are only trace amounts of other elements, including oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, silicon, magnesium, neon, iron, and sulfur. These trace elements make up less than 0.1 percent of the mass of the Sun. The Sun is constantly fusing hydrogen into helium, but don't expect the ratio of hydrogen to helium to change anytime soon. The Sun has converted about half of the hydrogen in its core into helium. It still has about 5 billion years before the hydrogen runs out. Meanwhile, elements heavier than helium form in the Sun's core. They form in the convection zone, which is the outermost layer of the solar interior.

The sun consists mostly of hydrogen and helium.

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Chemical Composition Of The Sun

What Is the Sun Made Of?

Table of Element Composition

Learn About Solar Chemistry

by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

You may know the Sun consists mainly of hydrogen and helium.

Have you ever wondered what about the other elements in the Sun?

About 67 chemical elements have been detected in the sun.

I'm sure you're not surprised that hydrogen is the most abundant element, accounting for over 90% of the atoms and over 70% of solar mass.

The next most abundant element is helium, which accounts for almost just under 9% of the atoms and about 27% of the mass.

There are only trace amounts of other elements, including oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, silicon, magnesium, neon, iron, and sulfur. These trace elements make up less than 0.1 percent of the mass of the Sun.

Solar Structure and Composition

The Sun is constantly fusing hydrogen into helium, but don't expect the ratio of hydrogen to helium to change anytime soon.

The Sun is 4.5 billion years old and has converted about half of the hydrogen in its core into helium. It still has about 5 billion years before the hydrogen runs out.

Meanwhile, elements heavier than helium form in the Sun's core. They form in the convection zone, which is the outermost layer of the solar interior.

Temperatures in this region are cool enough that the atoms have enough energy to hold their electrons.

This makes the convection zone darker or more opaque, trapping heat and causing the plasma appear to boil from convection.

The motion carries heat to the bottom layer of the solar atmosphere, the photosphere.

Energy in the photosphere is released as light, which travels through the solar atmosphere (the chromosphere and corona) and passes into space.

Light reaches the Earth about 8 minutes after it leaves the Sun.

Elemental Composition of the Sun

Here is a table listing the Sun's elemental composition, which we know from analysis of its spectral signature.

Although the spectrum we can analyze comes from the solar photosphere and chromosphere, scientists believe it is representative of the whole Sun, except for the solar core.

Element	% of total atoms	% of total mass
Hydrogen	91.2	71.0
Helium	8.7	27.1
Oxygen	0.078	0.97
Carbon	0.043	0.40
Nitrogen	0.0088	0.096
Silicon	0.0045	0.099
Magnesium	0.0038	0.076
Neon	0.0035	0.058
Iron	0.030	0.014
Sulfur	0.015	0.040

Source: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center

If you consult other sources, you'll see the percentage values vary by up to 2% for hydrogen and helium.

We can't visit the Sun to sample it directly, and even if we could, scientists would still need to estimate the concentration of elements in other portions of the star.

These values are estimates based on the relative intensity of spectral lines.

Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

Introduction

Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville - Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Science educator with experience teaching chemistry, biology, astronomy, and physics at the high school, college, and graduate levels.

ThoughtCo and About Education chemistry expert since 2001.

Widely-published graphic artist, responsible for printable periodic tables and other illustrations used in science.

Experience

Anne Helmenstine, Ph.D. has covered chemistry for ThoughtCo and About Education since 2001, and other sciences since 2013. She taught chemistry, biology, astronomy, and physics at the high school, college, and graduate levels. She has worked as a research scientist and also abstracting and indexing diverse scientific literature for the Department of Energy.

In addition to her work as a science writer, Dr. Helmenstine currently serves as a scientific consultant, specializing in problems requiring an interdisciplinary approach. Previously, she worked as a research scientist and college professor.

Education

Dr. Helmenstine holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a B.A. in physics and mathematics with a minor in chemistry from Hastings College. In her doctoral work, Dr. Helmenstine developed ultra-sensitive chemical detection and medical diagnostic tests.

ThoughtCo and Dotdash

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https://www.thoughtco.com/element-composition-of-sun-607581

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