A Simple Introduction

Find out all about the sun and how it relates to our everyday lives.

The sun is one of the most important things in our solar system. It provides us with light and warmth, and it’s also responsible for a lot of the weather that we experience on Earth.

So, what exactly is the sun? How does it work? What makes up its atmosphere? Find out these answers and more in this article about our nearest star!

What Is the Sun?

The Sun is the heart of our Solar System. It gives life to every living thing on Earth and provides warmth through its immense energy.

The Sun has been around for billions of years, but it’s not going anywhere any time soon!

The Sun’s core is so hot and dense that it fuses 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second.

As a result, 4 million tons of matter are converted to energy every second perpetuating our solar system through the power of heat alone.

Does The Sun Have Any Atmosphere?

The Corona

The sun is more than just a ball of fire. It has an outer atmosphere called “the corona” which stretches all the way from Earth to Pluto and beyond, giving it a temperature of about 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit.

It has this temperature since it emits X-rays and other high-energy light.

X-rays are pulsing waves of heat and energy that come from the hottest objects in our universe. These include supernovae remnants, quasars (so enormous they devour entire galaxies at a time), stars, and even black holes!

TIP: We can only see Corona during a total solar eclipse

The Photosphere

The sun’s photosphere is the lowest layer of its atmosphere, and it is where all the energy that has been stored up within this star through a process called nuclear fusion emerges as light.

This wayward heat can be seen in our solar system as light with colors ranging from infrared to ultraviolet. It is also 500 kilometers thick and is the reason we can see solar flares and other magnetic phenomena.

It is a boiling pot of plasma, punctuated by dark sunspots that form when the magnetic field breaks through.

The Chromosphere 

A thin, red layer of gas on the surface of our sun is called the chromosphere.

It has a temperature that reaches 14.000 degrees Fahrenheit and can only be seen from Earth’s atmosphere during an eclipse event when it emits its reddish glow as super-heated hydrogen burns off at faster rates.

Sun’s Magnetic Field

The Sun’s magnetic field is powerful and all-encompassing. It varies across its surface, with the poles being 1-2 gauss and features like sunspots or prominences measuring 3,000 gauss.

Sunspots are visible as dark patches on the photosphere of our nearest star, the Sun. These spots appear to be caused by magnetic activity and they cause a rise in power output from regions where sunspot cycles occur more frequently than others.

Sun’s Radiation to Earth

Solar radiation is not just a source of energy for the Earth, it also carries light and heat.

This radiant energy provides life to all plants and animals alike by supplying them with the necessary nutrients that they need in order to carry out photosynthesis as well as metabolism.

Solar radiation has many forms, and the most important part of it is measured in wavelengths or frequency.

The Earth’s warm atmosphere is the result of Sunrays that strike it. When you bask in a sunbeam, its energy warishes through your skin and into your body to keep you warm!

How much time does it take for sunlight to reach the Earth?

Sunlight takes about eight minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth from the Sun.

Does the Sun have a companion?

Scientists believe that in the early days of our solar system, the Sun had a partner star that has long since died and left behind debris.

Binary solar systems are common in our galaxy, and it is not out of the realm of possibility for ours to have had one too.

Sun’s Expiration Date

In about 5 billion years, the sun will grow and become a red giant. After all its hydrogen is used up, our star’s core begins to collapse in on itself due to gravity pulling it inward from outside pressure exerted by the outer layers of gas that surround it.

Once our star dies, it will expand into a red giant, and at some point, in its orbit around the main sequence of stars, this star will reach Earth and consume it.

Last Thoughts

The sun is a fascinating and mysterious object in our solar system that we are still discovering.

We hope this blog post has given you some interesting facts about the sun and solar radiation.

Thanks for reading!