The Chemical Composition of the Sun

The solar chemical composition is an important ingredient in our understanding of the formation, structure, and evolution of both the Sun and our Solar System. Furthermore, it is an essential reference standard against which the elemental contents of other astronomical objects are compared. In this review, we evaluate the current understanding of the solar photospheric composition. In particular, we present a redetermination of the abundances of nearly all available elements, using a realistic new three-dimensional (3D), time-dependent hydrodynamical model of the solar atmosphere. We have carefully considered the atomic input data and selection of spectral lines, and accounted for departures from local…