Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2008
The solar chemical composition has recently undergone a drastic revision, in particular in terms of the C, N, O and Ne abundances that have been lowered by almost a factor of two. In this invited review I will describe the different compounding reasons for this change (3D model atmospheres, non-LTE line formation, improved atomic/molecular data) and discuss some astrophysical implications thereof, which fall under both good (solar neighborhood) and bad (helioseismology) news. The most recent literature regarding the solar O abundance is surveyed and a critical evaluation whether or not these support the low solar abundance scale is presented. Finally I venture to make some predictions to what the real solar O abundance may be.