I'm not even an amateur astronomer, but do occasionally flip through the astronomy section of my atlas. Something i read tonight seems fishy.
If there was a "solar nebula" which condensed into the sun and planets, wouldn't the heaviest elements have "fallen" out first? Seems to me all the lead and gold and uranium and iron should be deep inside the sun.
Then i read the next page, which said that while the volume of the sun is more than a million times the earth, the mass is only 330,000 times the earth - and the mean solar density is only 1.4 times that of water. So i ask my self - Is there something about solar fusion that spits out heavy elements?
And one final question - Is there any way to explain this to a non-scientist?
Thanx

• re: heavy elements at the core of the sun - carefuluniverse - July 29, 2003 - 15:06 UTC
  • "Gold" should say "uranium" - carefuluniverse - July 29, 2003 - 15:07 UTC
  • re: heavy elements NOT at the core of the sun - rickschu - July 31, 2003 - 02:24 UTC
    • Perhaps gravity does not overcome electron shields!? - sillyuniverse - July 31, 2003 - 05:42 UTC
  • Larry Bob (B-0b1) - treborm - October 16, 2003 - 19:34 UTC
    • We must be kidding - rickschu - November 10, 2003 - 08:33 UTC
• I think this will answer some of your questions... - bruce - July 31, 2003 - 04:32 UTC