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Our understanding of atomic physics is still insufficient

A new paper to-day in Nature Communications based on asteroseismoligy indicates this. IFA's Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard is co-author.

Oscillation patterns in a Sunlike star, orbited by an Earthlike exoplanet. Illustration: ESA.
Oscillation patterns in a Sunlike star, orbited by an Earthlike exoplanet. Illustration: ESA.

By studying the oscillations in the Sun, we can deduce that our understanding of atomic physics is still lacking.

This is the main conclusion in a recent paper of 27 January 2025 in the esteemed publication Nature Communications, with Aarhus University professor emeritus Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard as co-author.

Observations of solar oscillations (helioseismology) in high precision shows that the plasma deep inside the Sun behaves differently than predicted from the thermodynamic models developed from experiments and theoretical calculations on Earth. This will have great impact not only in the future development of fusion reactors, but also on our understanding of the behaviour and development on other stars than the Sun. Thus it also has impact on the evironments on exoplanets orbiting most other stars; some of which may have developed life.

In more detail, the recent scientific work concerns the measurements of the opacity of the plasma deep inside the Sun - by studying the solar oscillations from the outside, the researchers are able to reconstruct the environment deep in the unaccessible parts of our star, observing that something is wrong - and of course Nature is never in error!

The original paper in Nature Communications can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54793-y