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Last Post 3/2/2005 1:07 PM by  Terry Kucera
Samantha S
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3/2/2005 7:19 AM
    Is it true that water was detected in a portion of the sun's spectra?

    Terry Kucera



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    3/2/2005 1:07 PM
    Hi Samantha,
    Yes there is water - but not liquid water (no oases on the Sun!) it is steam, so _very_ hot water. Still, for the Sun that is pretty cool - most parts of the Sun are so hot that any molecule (as you may know, water is made up of an oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, so it is a molecule) will come apart. However, in sunspots it is cool enough (about 3800 K or about 6,400 degrees F) for gaseous forms of water and a few other molecules, like carbon monoxide, to exist. We can see lines cause by these molecules in spectra in the infra-red - a color of light humans can't see with their eyes, but is out beyond red in the rainbow.

    Terry
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