Glossary
Elemental Abundances

Nuclear reactions within stars are continually building "heavy" elements (up the Fe) via fusion. Many of the "very heavy" elements (above Fe; made in Supernovae) are radioactively decaying. Thus the relative abundance of the various elements obviously depends where (& when) one looks.

Solar Abundances
Element Symbol Atomic # Abun/Hydrogen
Hydrogen H 1 1
Helium He 2 9.8x10-2
Lithium Li 3 1.4x10-11
Beryllium Be 4 1.4x10-11
Boron B 5 4.0x10-10
Carbon C 6 3.6x10-4
Nitrogen N 7 1.1x10-4
Oxygen O 8 8.5x10-4
Fluorine F 9 3.6x10-8
Neon Ne 10 1.2x10-4
Sodium Na 1a 2.3x10-6
Magnesium Mg 12 3.8x10-5
Aluminium Al 13 3.0x10-6
Silicon Si 14 3.5x10-5
Phospherus P 15 2.8x10-7
Sulphur S 16 1.6x10-5
Chlorine Cl 17 3.1x10-7
Argon Ar 18 3.5x10-6
Potassium K 19 1.3x10-7
Calcium Ca 20 2.3x10-6
Scandium Sc 21 1.3x10-9
Titanium Ti 22 9.8x10-8
Vanadium V 23 1.0x10-8
Chromium Cr 24 4.7x10-7
Manganese Mn 25 2.5x10-7
Iron Fe 26 3.47x10-5

WWW Links