The Sun By Jack

What is the sun? The sun is a star, it is the closest star to Earth and is the centre of our solar system. It is an average star, meaning that it’s size, age and temperature are average compared to other stars in space. The Sun is made up of hot gases: 92.1%hydrogen 7.8% helium 1% comprising carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, magnesium, silicon, sulphur, iron and over 50 other elements

Layers of the Sun The Sun is made up of different layers, the core, the radiative zone and the convection zone. The Core – is the centre of the Sun, it is in this region where the energy of the Sun is produced by hydrogen atoms smashing into each other. The radiative zone – the energy created in the core travels through the radiative zone, where particles of light carry the energy. It takes millions of years for the energy to move to the next layer. The convection zone – energy is carried to the surface of the Sun faster and the energy produced by the motion of the gases is released as light and heat.

Solar atmosphere The visible solar atmosphere consists of three regions: The photosphere – is where most of the visible light comes from, this is the part of the Sun we can see. The chromosphere – is above the photosphere, solar energy passes through this region on its way out from the centre of the sun. Solar flares arise in the chromosphere The solar corona – is part of the sun’s atmosphere. It is in the region that prominences appear. Prominences are huge clouds of glowing gas that erupt from the upper chromosphere. The corona is extremely hot, measuring millions of degrees Kelvin.

The solar atmosphere is so hot that the gas is in a plasma state (hot ionized gas)- a highly charged state. The atmosphere is influenced by strong solar magnetic fields that run through it. These magnetic fields and the corona stretch out into space and consist of particles travelling away from the sun as part of the solar wind. The chromosphere and corona can only be seen during a total solar eclipse because although they emit white light it can only be seen when the light from the photosphere is blocked out, which is what occurs in a solar eclipse.

Solar wind Solar eclipse

Activity of the Sun The sun is a very active place because of the energy it releases. Sunspots- Little dark spots are found on the photosphere of the sun, sunspots are thought to appear when a magnetic disruption occurs in the sun. Solar flares- occur frequently, they are sudden, localized transient increases in brightness that occur near Sunspots. Solar flares occur when magnetic fields on the surface smack into each other. This causes giant amounts of gas to shoot out of the sun. Sometimes they shoot up as high as 100,000 km and last for hours. The amount of solar activity changes and is closely related to the number of sunspots that are seen. The number of sunspots and the amount of solar activity varies within an 11 year period, this is known as the solar cycle. Solar flares effects electronics and communications on Earth, the static heard on the radio is sometimes caused by solar flares.

Multiple solar flares

Statistics Of the Sun The Sun is the biggest feature in our Solar System. The Sun accounts for about 99.8%of the entire Mass of the solar system. The diameter is approx1.4million km across,the Earth is approx 13,000 km across. It would take around 1.3 million Earths to fill the sun, and around 109 Earths to fit across the Suns disks. The Mass of the Sun is about 1,990,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The temperature of the Suns surface (photosphere) is approx 6,000ºC. The core of the Sun is approx 15,000,000ºC. The Sun is around 150 million km from Earth. It would take man about 176 years to reach the Sun. A beam of sunlight takes 8mins to reach earth. The Sun is the centre of the solar system, all the planets orbit around the Sun, its powerful gravitational pull holds all the planets in its orbit without this all the planets would float away into space.

Earth Sun

Lifespan of the Sun The Sun is a second generation star, some of its material came from other stars. The Sun is approx 4.6 billion years old and has used up about half of the hydrogen in its core. It has enough fuel to go on for another 5 billion years. Scientists are not sure what will happen then. Some think that when all the hydrogen has been used, the Sun will then use helium for energy and become a red giant. This would make the sun nearly 100 times its current size and will swallow the Earth. After a billion years as a red giant it will collapse into a white dwarf. It may take a trillion years to cool off completely.

Did You Know?  The Sun has no solid surface; if by some miracle a person survived the heat of the Sun they would just sink into it’s core.  The Sun supports life on Earth through light, heat and energy. Without the Sun, Earth would be a frozen, dark, lifeless ball.  The interactions between the Sun and Earth control the seasons, currents in the ocean, weather and climate.  The Sun gives off rays called x-rays and ultraviolet (UV) rays which are harmful to human skin and eyes.  Powerful gravity of the Sun makes things much heavier, a person weighing 38kg on Earth would weigh 1064kg on the Sun.  If 100,000,000,000 tonnes of dynamite exploded every second that would match the energy produced from the Sun.  The Suns brightness is equal to 4 trillion, trillion light bolts.  To escape the Suns gravity a rocket would have to travel at 671km/sec.

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