The Sun

By: Sam Belanger

What is it?

• The sun is G2 star• Closest star to Earth• Contains: hydrogen 70%, 28% helium, metals

and other materials 2%• Largest object in our solar system• Contains 99.8% of the solar systems total mass• Cant live without it• Estimated 4.5 billion years old

Sun Materials

Sales

HydrogenHeliumMetals/Other

Characteristics

• Diameter: 1,390,000 km( 109 times the earth)• Mass: 1.989e30 kg• Temperature: about 27 million degrees

Fahrenheit • 93 million miles away from earth• So large that its gravity is able to hold all of

the planets in orbit

Purpose

• The sun is necessary for our survival• The light from the sun heats our planet and

makes life possible• Eventually in an estimated 5 billion years, the

sun will evolve into a red giant star and will no longer heat the earth

• Gets its energy from a process called nuclear fusion

Layers

• Photosphere: visible surface of the sun that is about 600 km thick

• Chromosphere: thin region below the corona, about 3,000 km thick

• Corona: forms the sun’s outer atmosphere, and can extend outward a distance equal to 10-12 times the diameter of the sun

• Core: the center of the sun, where the energy is produced-temperature around 15,000,000 degrees Celsius

Solar Flares

• A solar flare is a basically a huge explosion on the sun

• Flares occur when intense magnetic fields on the sun become too tangled

• They emit huge bursts of electromagnetic radiation including x rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, and radio waves

• A sunspot, or a cooler, dark spot on the sun can also appear

Solar Eclipse

• Sometimes the moon comes between the Earth and the sun

• This event is called a solar eclipse• If the moon is partially over the sun its known

as a partial eclipse, or if its completely blocked, a total eclipse

• Happen usually once or twice a year• Can be harmful if looked at

Cool Facts

• 1 million earths could fit in the sun• The sun’s core is 150 times denser than that of water• The sun is one of about 2 billion stars in the Milky

Way galaxy• The suns energy is about 386 billion billion megawatts• A man weighing 60 kg on earth would weigh 1680 kg

on the sun• Einstein’s equation E=MC^2 changed ideas about the

sun’s energy source by equating mass and energy

Resources

• http://www.windows2universe.org/sun/sun.html• http://nineplanets.org/sol.html• http://free.co.uk//sunsets/Landscapes-Road-to-t

he-Sun/• Science text book• http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/images/xraysun.g

if• http://cosmicpsychic.com/wp-content/uploads/2

010/06/TotalSolarEclipse.jpg• http://www.barewalls.com/i/c/602106_Gacrux-th

e-prominent-red-giant-star-located-in-the-constellation-Crux.jpg

• http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn9824/dn9824-1_831.jpg