Re: sun's spectrum

["Donald E. Simanek" <dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu>]

On Thu, 29 Jan 1998 fredb@teleport.com wrote:

> When you look at the sun's light in  a spectroscope, you see the entire
> spectrum. Since the sun is made mainly of hydrogen, where are the hydrogen
> lines? Or the helium lines?

The Sun's output is mainly black body radiation. The bright line spectrum
of hydrogen, helium, and other elements in the slightly cooler outer
regions of the sun is superimposed upon that. The even cooler atmosphere
of the sun produces some absorbtion lines. All of these features will show
in a carefully made photo of the spectrum. But the bright and dark lines
of elements are a small modulation on the continuous black body continuous
radiation spectrum (all colors are present).

	-- Donald Simanek