A Solar Spectrum for Rosie

I had a long geeky conversation with Rosie last night about spectra. She does emission spectroscopy of 'the crap in water'. I do emission and absorption spectroscopy of stars. We have lots of stuff in common. She was stoked to see my 'solar spectrum' that I downloaded from the National Solar Observatory.


Look at all the dark splots. Those are atoms absorbing light at that very specific color. The one I look at most is a hydrogen transition - that one in the upper right corner. There's lots of calcium, magnesium, iron, hydrogen, and other crap in the outer atmosphere of the sun, doing the absorbing.