Sun Facts
Makes life on our planet possible by giving us great amounts of light and heat
Contains about 98% of the mass of the entire Solar System.
Is just a medium sized star (yellow dwarf).
Is the center of our Solar System. All the planets and other objects orbit around it.
Contains darkspots that are known as sunspots.
Sun Facts
• The Sun is a ball of hot gases: mostly hydrogen and helium
• The average distance from the Earth to the Sun is 93,000,000 miles.
• It takes light eight and a half minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth.
• The diameter of the Sun is 870,000 miles, 109 times larger than the Earth's. Its volume is big enough to hold over 1 million Earths.
Interior of the Sun
• Core– Energy is produced in the core by nuclear
fusion– Nuclear Fusion is the process of hydrogen
atoms joining together to form helium– Very extreme temperatures at the core
Nuclear Fusion
• The Sun converts 600 million tons of hydrogen into 596 million tons of helium every second. The extra 4 million tons is converted into energy
Convection Zone
• Outermost layer
• Temperature of gases cool as it reaches the top of the convection zone
• Convection*** Remember this term????
• Heat transfer through a fluid (gases are fluids)
Corona
• White halo around the sun• Corona=crown• Seen during a total solar eclipse• Outer layer of sun’s atmosphere• Corona extends into space for millions of
kilometers and gradually thins into streams of electrically charges particles called the solar wind
Sunspots
• Dark spots on the sun’s surface
• Areas of gas on the sun’s surface that are cooler than the gases around them
• Cooler gases don’t give off as much light as hotter gases
• The number of sunspots varies over a period of about 11 years
Prominence
• Reddish loops of gas that often link different parts of sunspot region
Solar Wind=1 million mph
• The source of the solar wind is the Sun's hot corona. The temperature of the corona is so high that the Sun's gravity cannot hold on to it.
• Solar flares can greatly increase the solar wind from the corona=increase in the number of particles reaching Earth’s upper atmosphere
Auroras
• When particles enter they create powerful electric currents that cause gas molecules to glow=auroras
• Solar wind particles can also affect Earth’s magnetic field, causing magnetic storms
• Magnetic storms can disrupt radio, telephone, and TV signals
• http://news.yahoo.com/video/environment-15749659/19271005