LETTERS TO PROGRESS IN PHYSICS The Liquid Metallic Hydrogen Model of the Sun and the Solar Atmosphere IV. On the Nature of the Chromosphere

The chromosphere is the site of weak emission lines characterizing the flash spectrum observed for a few seconds during a total eclipse. This layer of the solar atmosphere is known to possess an opaque Hα emission and a great number of spicules, which can extend well above the photosphere. A stunning variety of hydrogen emission lines have been observed in this region. The production of these lines has provided the seventeenth line of evidence that the Sun is comprised of condensed matter (Robitaille P.M. Liquid Metallic Hydrogen II: A critical assessment of current and primordial helium levels in Sun. Progr. Phys., 2013, v. 2, 35–47). Contrary to the gaseous solar models, the simplest mechanism for the production of emission lines is the evaporation of excited atoms from condensed surfaces existing within the chromosphere, as found in spicules. This is reminiscent of the chemiluminescence which occurs during the condensation of silver clusters (Konig L., Rabin I., Schultze W., and Ertl G. Chemiluminescence in th