Observing Our Sun

By Katie Licheni and Paige Lemura, 7G

What is the Sun?The sun is a big ball made of very hot gases. These gases are hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, iron and silicon. When the gases reach the sun’s core, they are converted into energy and released back out through the interior layers into the sun’s atmosphere. Eventually, the energy spreads out into the solar system in the form of heat and light.

The sun is almost 1,400,000 kilometres wide. This is so big, that over 1,000,000 Earths could fit in it. From Earth, you cannot see this size, because the sun is 149,600,000 km away. But there is also an even bigger star, known as the Pistol Star, that could fit 100 of our suns in it!!!

Interior Layers

The layer on the very outside of the sun is called the Corona, this layer can only be seen during an eclipse. Another layer of the sun is called the Chromosphere, this is seen as a red circle around the sun. The innermost layer is called the core, if it weren’t for the high temperatures of the sun keeping it in a gas form, the core would be a solid.

Solar Eclipse

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon is in between the sun and Earth. In a total solar eclipse, the moon blocks the sun completely. But in a partial solar eclipse, only part of the sun is covered. If the moon had a perfectly circular orbit, we would have a total solar eclipse almost every single month. But since the moon’s orbit is on a 5 degree angle to Earth, we only have a solar eclipse (partial or total) about twice a year.

Facts • The sun is only one of the 200 billion stars in our

galaxy • The temperature of the sun’s core is over 14 million

Kelvin.• If the sun stopped producing energy, it would take 50

million years to feel the effects on Earth.• The sun loses 5 million tones of material every second.• The sun’s mass is approximately 1.989 x 1030 kg.• 72% of the sun is hydrogen.

THE END

Thank you for looking at our project on the sun!!!

Bibliographyhttp://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970518a.html

http://www.goldenkstar.com/facts/sun-interesting-facts.htvm

http://www.space.com/17170-what-is-the-sun-made-of.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse

http://fusedweb.llnl.gov/cpep/chart_pages/5.plasmas/sunlayers.html