Solar flares: is iron-rich sun the cause? (Forwarded)

While Manuel's theory is seen as highly controversial by many in
the scientific community, other researchers have confirmed that
distant solar systems orbit stars that are rich in iron and other
metals. Last summer, astronomer Debra Fischer at the University of
California, Berkeley, presented her findings of a study of more
than 750 stars at the International Astronomical Union meeting in
Sydney, Australia. Fischer and her team determined that 20 percent
of metal-rich stars have planets orbiting them.

Manuel believes Fischer's research helps to confirm his 40-year
effort to change the way people think about the solar system's
origins. He thinks a supernova rocked our area of the Milky Way
galaxy some five billion years ago, giving birth to all the
heavenly bodies that populate the solar system.

This is a bit of a stretch. The cosmic abundance ratio of iron to
hydrogen is roughly 1E-5. In other words, as determined from the
Sun's photosphere and meteorites, there are roughly 100,000 H atoms
for every Fe atom. The "metal-rich" stars have a few times more
iron than does the Sun, so "only" 50,000 H atoms per Fe atom.

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