Uppsala analysis finds the Sun holds 55 percent more silver than earlier estimates

Researchers at Uppsala University determined that the Sun contains 55 percent more silver than earlier calculations suggested, ScienceDaily reported, based on materials from the university. The updated estimate comes from a more realistic model of the solar atmosphere and helps resolve a mismatch between solar silver measurements and chemically primitive meteorites. Sema Caliskan conducted the work during PhD studies at Uppsala's Department of Physics and Astronomy. The team used spectroscopy of sunlight and combined a dynamic model of the Sun's outer layers with improved atomic physics calculations, including non-equilibrium effects in which light affects the silver atoms that produce absorption lines. Previous measurements suggested the Sun contained significantly less silver than those meteorites, even though both formed from the same cloud of gas and dust about 4.6 billion years ago. With the new calculation, solar silver abundance is much more consistent with the meteorite record. Caliskan said the Sun is a key reference point for understanding other stars, planets, and cosmic material. The group plans to apply the same method to other stars to better track where silver forms and how it has been distributed through the Milky Way. Calculations used the Tetralith supercomputer at Linköping University. The study appears in Astronomy with DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/202659578.