Our Star The Sun

Our Star Our Sun is a star that is at the center of our solar system. The Sun is a hot ball of glowing gasses. Deep inside the core, atoms combine during the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium. During nuclear fusion, huge amounts of heat and light energy are released, making the sun so hot that it glows, putting off it’s own light.

Average The Sun looks much brighter than other stars, but only because it is MUCH closer. It really just has an average magnitude (brightness). The Sun is an average size too. It’s temperature is average, classifying it as a yellow star. All of this makes the Sun a main sequence star.

The Sun’s Layers The temperature in the core is about 27 million ˚F. The convection zone’s temperature varies since currents of hot gases carry energy as they rise to the Sun’s surface and then sink. The photosphere is the next layer and it is the lowest layer of the Sun’s atmosphere that gives off light.

The Sun’s Layers The chromosphere is just above the photosphere. The outer layer and largest part of the Sun’s atmosphere is the corona. –It’s temperature averages about 3.6 million ˚F. –It extends millions of miles into space.

The Sun’s Surface Sunspots are dark, cooler areas of the Sun’s surface. Prominences are huge arching columns of gas that are caused by the magnetic field of sunspots. When gases near a sunspot brighten up suddenly, they erupt as solar flares. –These high-energy particles interact with Earth’s atmosphere near the polar regions radiating lights called auroras.

Aurora Borealis