SUN

Center Star

Last updated:

USA[07/29/19]

NZL[29/07/19]

-[Introduction|Temperature|Size|Mass]

The Sun is a large star located at the center of our Solar System and is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. Without the Sun, life would cease to exist because it gives us heat, light, and energy. The Sun is super hot, just like any other star. It's so hot that it can reach 15 million degrees Celsius in the center. The Sun is also really big and has a lot of mass. It takes up 99.86% of the entire Solar Systems mass and over one million Earth's could fit inside the Sun!

-[Orbit|Gravitational Pull|Rotation|Layers]

Everything in the Solar System orbits the Sun. This includes all the planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and many more objects. The Sun keeps everything in orbit with its strong gravitational pull. If it was weak then we'd be floating through space right now. The Sun also rotates in the opposite direction from Earth. The equators of the Sun also orbit faster than the poles! This is called differential rotation. The Sun is made up of three layers. The photosphere, the chromosphere, and the corona. The corona is the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere and is usually hidden by the bright light of the Sun's surface. However, the corona can be viewed when you use special instruments or at a total solar eclipse. The chromosphere is the second of the three main layers in the Sun's atmosphere. This layer is a rosy red color and is around 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers deep. The photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun that we are most familiar with. Since the Sun is a ball of gas, this is not a solid surface but is actually a layer about 100 km thick (very, very, thin compared to the 700,000 km radius of the Sun).

-[Name Origin|Type Of Star]

The Sun is not named after a Roman or Greek deity like the rest of the planets(except Earth). Solar means relating to or determined by the Sun and system means a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole. So when you put these two words together, it makes sense. The Sun is a main-sequence star. There are many types of stars in the Universe ranging from Red Giants to Dwarf Stars. The Sun is medium-sized and is classified as a yellow dwarf or G2V star.

-[Magnetic Field|Light|Solar Winds]

The Sun has a magnetic field that is very powerful. When magnetic energy is released by the Sun during magnetic storms, solar flares occur which we see on Earth as sunspots. Sunspots were discovered by the famous astronomer, Galileo Galilei. Sunspots are dark areas on the Sun's surface caused by magnetic variations. The reason they appear dark is due to their temperature being much lower than surrounding areas. The Sun also releases solar winds which are ejections of plasma that originate from the corona(a layer of the Sun). Solar flares can travel through the Solar System at 450 km per second! The Aurora Australis and Aurora Borealis are caused by the interaction of solar winds with Earth's atmosphere. We all know that looking at the Sun with naked eyes is difficult. It's just too bright to look at. The light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to travel to Earth.

-Notes-

Type- Yellow Dwarf[G2V]

Made of- Corona, chromosphere, and photosphere.

Temperature- 15 million degrees Celsius[Center]

Diameter- 1.391 million km

Mass- 1.989 x 10^30 kg

Distance from Galactic Center- 25,000 LY[Light Years]

Distance from Earth- 149.6 million km

Images and videos below-