Goodness gracious, the Sun is a giant ball of hydrogen and helium plasma, with a sprinkling of other ingredients, all swirling around at temperatures that would feel like taking a blowtorch to the face. Surprisingly, one of those ingredients is water! After decades of debate, astronomers have found evidence of water vapor in the Sun’s cooler, darker patches known as sunspots. The average surface temperature of the Sun is 5,500 degrees Celsius, but these patches are cooler, around 3,500 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough for water molecules to survive in vaporized form.
This discovery can complicate the exploration of worlds beyond our solar system, as astronomers use spectroscopy to measure the light wavelengths of stars to figure out their composition. Water’s unique spectroscopic signature can be confused with other chemical compounds, so when exploring other planets, scientists must remember to consider whether the signal they are detecting is coming from the planet’s atmosphere, or from the star’s.