The Sun
January 2, 2008 6:40 am solar system, the sun
The star in our system is called the Sun. It is really amazing for many reasons especially that the energy the Sun makes lets all of us on Earth live.
So how much energy does the Sun make and how does it work?
The Sun was born about 4.6 billion years ago and is made from space dust and gas, gravity eventally made all the space gas into the flaming ball shape we see in our sky.
Because of the huge amount of gravity, material in the center of the cloud was squeezed so tightly that it became hot enough to ignite nuclear fusion.
The Sun fuses hydrogen to make helium within the very middle of the Sun called the core.
How much Hydrogen does it burn or fuse? tons, literally, every second the Sun fuses or burns about 600 million tons of hydrogen, yielding 596 million tons of helium. The remaining four tons of hydrogen are converted to energy, which makes the Sun shine. As far as that number goes it is beyond what I can even imagine. I can not even picture how large 600 million tons is and that is per second!
I used to believe that there were things that are forever. The Earth, the Sun, the Moon, even the Rocks. But that is not true. Nothing in the Universe lasts forever and even something as giant and everlasting as the Sun, will eventually die.
But die may not be the correct word. matter is not lost, it just becomes something else. Stellar recycling.
Scientists believe that our Sun is half way through its lifecycle and in a few billion years, after it runs out of most of the hydrogen it uses, it will begin to expand as it starts burning other gasses and turn into a red giant. At the red giant stage the Sun may in fact get so large that it will engulf many of the planets around it. The planets that do not get engulfed by the gorged Sun, will become much hotter and evoporating things like water and ice into space.
The large Sun will begin to shed its layers over billions of years, creating a nebula and the Sun itself will become a small dwarf star untill it dies out.
1- Core. The Sun’s nuclear “furnace,” where fusion reactions initially combine hydrogen atoms to produce helium, yielding energy in the process.
2 -Radiative Zone. Energy moves through a surrounding envelope of gas toward the Sun’s surface.
3- Convection Zone. Big “bubbles” of hot gas transport energy to the surface.
4- Photosphere. The Sun’s visible surface. Because of its high temperature, it glows yellow.
5- Sunspot. A magnetic “storm” on the Sun’s surface.
Prominence. An eruption of hot gas that can extend thousands of miles into space.
6- Corona. The Sun’s outer atmosphere, which is heated by the magnetic field to millions of degrees.
Check out more pictures of the fascinating Sun!
