Water on the sun: molecules everywhere
Oka, T.
Science 277(5324): 328-329
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9518362 Document Number: 482014
In this issue of Science, O. L. Polyansky and colleagues answer some of the theoretical questions prompted by the laboratory-infrared spectrum of hot water taken by Bernath and colleagues that matched the observed solar spectrum exactly. At the high temperature on the surface of the Sun--approximately 5,800 K--water molecules should dissociate into an H atom and a free-radical OH molecule or further still into an O atom and two H atoms. Part of the solution to the puzzle is that water is not found over the entire surface of the Sun, but only in sunspot umbrae, central dark spots where the temperature is lower, around 3,200 K. In addition to confirming the already firm evidence for water on the Sun, the data presented by Polyansky and colleagues demonstrate the power of a recent technique of spectral analysis based on variational treatment of nuclear motions in a molecule.