Attempts to measure the precise amount of neon in the sun have been
frustrated by a quirk of nature; neon atoms give off no signatures in visible
light.

steller quasars

WASHINGTON, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
survey of nearby sun-like stars suggests there is nearly three times more neon
in the sun and local universe than previously believed.
These Chandra results reassured astronomers the detailed physical theory
behind the solar model is secure.
"If the higher neon abundance measured by Drake and Testa is right, then
it is a simultaneous triumph for Chandra and for the theory of how stars
shine ," said John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.
"John always did what he loved, and he did it until the end," said Neta
Bahcall.

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WASHINGTON, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin
awarded the agency's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal posthumously to
acclaimed American astronomer and astrophysicist John Bahcall. "We had
an incredible 40 years together.

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Scientists use the model of the sun as a
basis for understanding the structure and evolution of other stars , as well as
many other areas of astrophysics. In
1998 he received the National Medal of Science from President Clinton.

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The zone is where the gas
undergoes a rolling, convective motion much like the unstable air in a
thunderstorm. He
later partnered with astronomers Lyman Spitzer and George Field to develop the
bold concept that became Hubble.
Bahcall was a Richard Black Professor of Astrophysics in the School of
Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton , N.

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It is not well known how much neon the sun contains.
The rate of this energy flow determines the location and size of a crucial
stellar region called the convection zone.harvard.edu

http://chandra.

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NASA's Chandra Neon Discovery Solves Solar Paradox

"We use the sun to test how well we understand stars and, to some extent,
the rest of the universe," said Jeremy Drake of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
"In his 70 years , John Bahcall was a legend in this community," Griffin
said.

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gov

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, manages the Chandra
program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

For additional information and Chandra images on the Web, visit:

http://chandra. His lifetime
of achievement included work on development of the Hubble Space Telescope.gov/home

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"This turbulent gas has an extremely important job, because nearly all of
the energy emitted at the surface of the sun is transported there by
convection ," Drake said.

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The zone extends from near the
sun's surface inward approximately 125,000 miles. Stars like the sun are covered in this super-heated gas that is
betrayed by the white corona around them during solar eclipses., and a
guest lecturer at Princeton University. He served as president of the
American Astronomical Society and president elect of the American Physical
Society.

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If true , this would
solve a critical problem with understanding how the sun works.

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This is critical
information for creating theoretical models of the sun., observed 21 sun-
like stars within a distance of 400 light years from Earth.
Griffin presented the medal today to Bahcall's widow, Neta Bahcall, during
a ceremony at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in
Washington.

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However,
observations of the sun's corona are very difficult to analyze. The Exceptional Scientific Achievement
Medal recognizes significant scientific contributions toward achieving NASA's
missions of exploration and discovery. "I have followed the career of John Bahcall and long admired his
scientific accomplishments and passionate advocacy for space-based astronomy.

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In 1992 he received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal.

titius oppenheimer

"But in order to understand the sun, we
need to know exactly what it is made of," he added.
The accepted amount of neon in the sun has led to a paradox.

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However, in a gas heated to millions of degrees, neon shines brightly
in X-rays."
Among Bahcall's five decades of accomplishments was his groundbreaking
work in the 1960s toward explaining the scientific mysteries of the sun.

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In addition to work on the Hubble, Bahcall was honored for extraordinary
service to NASA's space astronomy program and leadership of the National
Research Council's Decadal Survey.

Collection of scientific sites dedicated to the advancement of our understanding of the universe.

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Solar oscillations is a technique astronomers
previously relied on to probe the sun's interior.

NASA Honors Distinguished Astronomer With Medal

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These local stars
and the sun should contain about the same amount of neon when compared to
oxygen.

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J.
Bahcall is an expert in the field who was not involved in the Chandra study.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.J."
For more information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.

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Neon atoms , along with
carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, play an important role in how quickly energy
flows from nuclear reactions in the sun's core to its edge, where it then
radiates into space.
However , these close stellar kin were found to contain on average almost
three times more neon than is believed for the sun. She is a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton.

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To probe the neon content , Drake and his colleague Paola Testa of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass .
Drake is lead author of the study published in this week's issue of the
journal Nature. The Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the
Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.nasa.

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The predicted
location and size of the solar convection zone disagree with those deduced
from solar oscillations. Several scientists have
noted the problem could be fixed if the abundance of neon is in fact about
three times larger than currently accepted. "Either the sun is a freak
in its stellar neighborhood, or it contains a lot more neon than we think,"
Testa said. We were best friends; we were scientific
colleagues; and we were the love of each other's lives.nasa.