The solar carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen abundances from a 3D LTE analysis of molecular lines

Understand

Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are the fourth, sixth, and third most abundant elements in the Sun.

• Their abundances remain hotly debated due to the so-called solar modelling problem that has persisted for almost $20$ years.
• We revisit this issue by presenting a homogeneous analysis of $408$ molecular lines across $12$ diagnostic groups, observed in the solar intensity spectrum.
• Using a realistic 3D radiative-hydrodynamic model solar photosphere and LTE (local thermodynamic equilibrium) line formation, we find $\log\epsilon_{C} = 8.47\pm0.02$, $\log\epsilon_{N} = 7.89\pm0.04$, and $\log\epsilon_{O} = 8.70\pm0.04$.