- #1
resurgance2001
- 197
- 9
My question is, given that the Sun is composed almost entirely of just hydrogen and helium, why is the spectrum from it continuous and not an emission line spectrum?
This applies to other stars as well.
There are other elements of course present in the Sun, but they are present in very small quantities relatively, so I don't really see how the presence of the other elements would account for the continuos nature of the Sun's spectrum. Is the Sun's spectrum really continuous? If one is able to look at it at fine enough detail would one find hundreds of fine emission lines?
Thanks
This applies to other stars as well.
There are other elements of course present in the Sun, but they are present in very small quantities relatively, so I don't really see how the presence of the other elements would account for the continuos nature of the Sun's spectrum. Is the Sun's spectrum really continuous? If one is able to look at it at fine enough detail would one find hundreds of fine emission lines?
Thanks