The standard solar model was so reliable that it could predict the existence of the massive neutrino .
Helioseismology measurements were so precise that they could determine the depth of the convection zone .
This agreement between theory and observation was the envy of all astrophysics – until recently when sophisticated three-dimensional hydrodynamic calculations of the solar atmosphere reduced the metal content by a factor of almost two .
Antia & Basu ( 2005 ) suggested that a higher value of the solar neon abundance , A _ { Ne } / A _ { O } = 0.52 , would resolve this controversy .
Drake & Testa ( 2005 ) presented strong evidence in favor of this idea from a sample of 21 Chandra stars with enhanced values of the neon abundance , A _ { Ne } / A _ { O } = 0.41 .
In this paper , we have analyzed solar active region spectra from the archive of the Flat Crystal Spectrometer on Solar Maximum Mission , a NASA mission from the 1980s , as well as full-Sun spectra from the pioneering days of X-ray astronomy in the 1960s .
These data seem consistent with the standard neon-to-oxygen abundance value , A _ { Ne } / A _ { O } = 0.15 ( Grevesse & Sauval 1998 ) .
If these results prove to be correct , than the enhanced-neon hypothesis will not resolve the current controversy .