Cool Sun Fact - Introduction
The Sun
The German physicist Joseph Fraunhofer found some 700 lines in the solar
spectrum in the early 1800s. We now know that there are many thousands
of lines in the Sun's spectrum, caused by different chemical elements
in the solar atmosphere.
In the partial solar spectrum shown below, many dark absorption lines such as Fraunhofer discovered can be seen. Some of them are identified with the responsible element.