In stars that is. I ask because stellar spectra show the atomic absorption and emission lines of both lightweight and heavy elements as well. The atoms that are causing these lines can't be from too deep in the star, or we wouldn't be able to detect them. So what holds the heavier elements up in the photospheres of stars?
I suspect that it is ionization, but is that all there is to it? Wouldn't a slightly ionized heavy atom still tend to sink?
Bruce
Why heavy elements don't sink
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Why heavy elements don't sink
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.
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Re: Why heavy elements don't sink
BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2019 12:03 am
In stars that is. I ask because stellar spectra show the atomic absorption and emission lines of both lightweight and heavy elements as well. The atoms that are causing these lines can't be from too deep in the star, or we wouldn't be able to detect them. So what holds the heavier elements up in the photospheres of stars?
I suspect that it is ionization, but is that all there is to it? Wouldn't a slightly ionized heavy atom still tend to sink?
- Space Shuttle Endeavour appears to straddle the stratosphere and mesosphere in this photo. "The orange layer is the troposphere, where all of the weather and clouds which we typically watch and experience are generated and contained. This orange layer gives way to the whitish Stratosphere and then into the Mesosphere."
In star convective zones (which dominate the volume of all stars) atoms end up completely mixed.
In our own atmosphere, the heavy CO2 molecule is a well mixed (at ~400 ppm and rising) throughout the Troposphere, Stratosphere and Mesosphere thanks to convection.
Art Neuendorffer
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Re: Why heavy elements don't sink
Thanks Art. That well explains why even the heaviest elements are observed in stars' photospheres.
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.