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There goes the apple cart <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /><br /><br />Link....<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>New Evidence for the 'Solar Oxygen Crisis'</b><br /><br />Scientists have published new evidence supporting the recent discovery that the Sun contains about half as much oxygen as previously thought, an issue some scientists have dubbed the solar oxygen crisis. This is a potentially huge scientific problem because scientists have used the particular prior measurement as a platform for understanding the inner workings of other stars.<br /><br />Oxygen is the third most abundant atom in the universe and the element most frequently produced in the “nuclear furnaces†of stars. In many astrophysical situations, oxygen is linked to the abundances carbon, nitrogen, and neon. If the oxygen abundance in the Sun is half as much as scientists thought, these other elemental abundances may also be off by a factor of two. <br /><br />“The abundance of solar oxygen serves as a key reference for the chemical composition of other stars,†lead scientist Hector Socas-Navarro, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, explained to PhysOrg.com. “We thought we had very solid measurements of this abundance since the 1980s, but recent evidence indicates that we've been overestimating it by almost a factor of two. The implications of this are incredibly important.†<br /> /><br />He added that there is another major downside of a lower oxygen abundance. Models of the solar interior once predicted that sound waves in the Sun traveled at certain speed, a value that agreed well with the measured speed. Because the speed depends on composition, this is another way that scientists learn about the processes that take place in the Sun, what elements it is made of, and in what quantities. Now, with the Sun having half as much oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and neon, the sound</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>