Light Isotopes Are Enriched In The Solar Wind (3 - 136 amu)

Solar sorting of lighter isotopes of He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe into the solar wind produces a common mass-dependent fractionation power law, where the fractionation factor, f , is

log ( f ) = 4.56 log ( H/L ) ,

H is the mass of the heavy isotope, and L is the mass of the light isotope [Hwaung and Manuel, Meteoritics 18 (1983) 209-222]. Sorting of atoms by mass covers the Sun's surface with 91% H and 9% He, but inside the Sun the seven most abundant elements are the same ones that comprise 99% of meteorites: Fe, Ni, O, Si, S, Mg and Ca .