That Big Red Star In The Sky!
Only in our wildest imagnation can we actually touch down on the sun's surface, you would be overwhelmed by its heat before you even reach it. The sun is a star and is the source of heat that sustains life on Earth. The sun is probably a little smaller and less bright than the average star. It is relatively near in distance compaired to other stars. The sun is the center of the solar system.It controls our climate and weather.
The makeup of the sun is mostly all the chemical elements that are found on Earth, just in a gaseous state. It is also made up of three outer layers. Which are the Photosphere, Chromosphere, and Corona. These are also called the solar atmosphere. The sun has no solid crust. It is a very hot, fluid body. Hydrogen is the the most common element, but helium, nitrogen, and neon are abundant.
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THE PHOTOSPHERE - The dept at which we can see no deeper into the core.
It is slightly different from one place on the sun to another. Its
general pressure is about a few hundredths of sea-level pressure on Earth.
The temperature ranges from 4500-6000 Kelvin. Cooler regions of the
photosphere are known as sunspots.
THE CHROMOSPHERE - Is the gases which extend away from the photosphere. The average temperature is 4500-10,000 Kelvin. The Chromosphere is 2500 km thick. THE CORONA - The outermoost region of the sun's atmosphere, it is usually not seen, only during a total solar eclipse. It is millions of Kelvin degrees hot. |
Besides heat and light, the sun gives off electromagnetic radiation. The sun also emits deadly gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, infrared and radio waves. In the sun's core the pressure is 100 billion times Earth's atmospheric pressure and the temperature is 27 million degrees Farenheit. The energy produced in the sun is equal to millions of hydrogen (fusion) bombs going off each second. The gravitational force of the sun, controls the motions of the planets and keeps them moving in their orbits.
The sun goes through a number of cycles in which it either changes size or shape. It appears to be an 80-year cycle in which the overall diameter of the sun contracts and expands by 0.02%
| Distance from the Earth | 922.96 million miles |
| Diameter | 0.864 million miles |
| Age | 4.5 billion years |
| Mean density | 0.254 of Earth's |
| Surface Temp. | 5,800 K |
| Abosolue Magnitude | 4.83 |
| Spectral type | G2 |
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is the sun?
2. What elements are found in the sun?
3. What are sunspots?
4. How hot is the sun's core?
5. What are the three main layers of the sun?
