{"id":42042,"date":"2025-04-25T21:07:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T15:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=42042"},"modified":"2025-04-25T21:07:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T15:37:52","slug":"helium-estimation-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/25-04-2025\/helium-estimation-sun","title":{"rendered":"A New Method to Estimate Helium Abundance in the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Science and Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A recent study by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has accurately estimated the abundance of helium in the Sun\u2019s photosphere.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Helium is the second most abundant element<\/strong> in the Sun after hydrogen, playing a vital role in its structure and energy dynamics.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To accurately measure its abundance in the <strong>Sun\u2019s photosphere<\/strong> has been a long-standing challenge due to the lack of helium spectral lines in the visible range.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Traditional methods <\/strong>relied on indirect data from hotter stars, the solar corona and wind, and helioseismology (study of the Sun\u2019s internal oscillations).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The new methodology<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Researchers analyzed high-resolution solar spectra to study both atomic and molecular spectral lines.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They focused on <strong>neu<\/strong><strong>tral magnesium (Mg) and magnesium hydride (MgH)<\/strong>, as well as neutral carbon (C) and its molecular forms CH and C\u2082.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How does the method work?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The spectral lines of both atomic and molecular forms of magnesium and carbon are dependent on the abundance of hydrogen in the Sun\u2019s photosphere.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Any variation in the helium content directly affects the abundance of hydrogen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If the helium abundance increases, the relative abundance of hydrogen decreases.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This reduction in hydrogen availability impacts the formation of molecules like MgH and CH, and also lowers the opacity of the Sun\u2019s photosphere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Internal Structure of Sun<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Core:<\/strong> The Sun\u2019s energy originates in its core through nuclear fusion reactions. With extremely high temperatures and pressures, the core fuses hydrogen into helium, releasing energy.<br>&#8211; <strong>Photosphere: <\/strong>It has no solid surface but appears as a bright disk due to high gas density blocking deeper visibility.<br>&#8211; <strong>Chromosphere: <\/strong>Located above the photosphere, this layer is less dense and usually visible only during solar eclipses or with special filters.<br>&#8211; <strong>Corona: <\/strong>The outermost and most extended part of the Sun\u2019s atmosphere. It consists of very hot, low-density plasma and is visible during total solar eclipses.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2124064#:~:text=Indian%20Institute%20of%20Astrophysics%20(IIA,Sun%2C%20in%20a%20recent%20study.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>PIB<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">A recent study by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has accurately estimated the abundance of helium in the Sun\u2019s photosphere.\u00a0<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Helium is the second most abundant element in the Sun after hydrogen, playing a vital role in its structure and energy dynamics.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">To accurately measure its abundance in the Sun\u2019s photosphere has been a long-standing challenge due to the lack of helium spectral lines in the visible range.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/25-04-2025\/helium-estimation-sun\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42059,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42042\/revisions\/42059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}