Isotopes Tell Sun’s Origin and Operation

Modern versions of Aston’s mass spectrometer enable measurements of two quantities – isotope abundances and masses – that tell the Sun’s origin and operation. Isotope analyses of meteorites, the Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, the solar wind, and solar flares over the past 45 years indicate that fresh, poorly-mixed, supernova debris formed the solar system. The iron-rich Sun formed on the collapsed supernova core and now itself acts as a magnetic plasma diffuser, as did the precursor star, separating ions by mass. This process covers the solar surface with lightweight elements and with the lighter isotopes of each element. Running difference imaging provides supporting evidence of a rigid, iron-rich structure below the Sun’s fluid outer layer of lightweight elements. Mass measurements of all 2,850 known nuclides expose repulsive interactions between neutrons that trigger neutron-emission at the solar core, followed by neutron-decay and a series of reactions that collectively generate solar luminosity, solar neutrinos, the carrier gas for solar mass separation, and an outpouring of solar-wind hydrogen from the solar surface. Neutron-emission and neutron-decay generate ≈ 65% of solar luminosity; H-fusion ≈ 35%, and ≈ 1% of the neutron-decay product survives to depart as solarwind hydrogen. The energy source for the Sun and other ordinary stars seems to be neutron-emission and neutron-decay, with partial fusion of the decay product, rather than simple fusion of hydrogen into helium or heavier elements.