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1._Sun_and_the_solar_system

The Sun is a massive star at the center of our Solar System, containing over 99.8% of its total mass, with a diameter of 1,390,000 km and a core temperature of 15,500,000°C. It generates energy through nuclear fusion, with layers including the core, radiative zone, convective zone, photosphere, chromosphere, and corona, which is responsible for solar phenomena like sunspots and solar flares. The Sun's lifecycle includes its birth from an interstellar cloud, a stable main-sequence phase, and eventual transformation into a red giant and white dwarf as it exhausts its nuclear fuel.

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12 views22 pages

1._Sun_and_the_solar_system

The Sun is a massive star at the center of our Solar System, containing over 99.8% of its total mass, with a diameter of 1,390,000 km and a core temperature of 15,500,000°C. It generates energy through nuclear fusion, with layers including the core, radiative zone, convective zone, photosphere, chromosphere, and corona, which is responsible for solar phenomena like sunspots and solar flares. The Sun's lifecycle includes its birth from an interstellar cloud, a stable main-sequence phase, and eventual transformation into a red giant and white dwarf as it exhausts its nuclear fuel.

Uploaded by

shaurya.jani
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Sun

Sun Fact Sheet

The Sun is a one of more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy.

Diameter: 1,390,000 km (Earth 12,742 km or nearly 100 times smaller)


Mass: 1.1989 x 1030 kg (333,000 times Earth’s mass)

Temperature: 5500oC (surface) 15,500,000oC (core)

The Sun contains more than 99.8% of the total mass of the Solar System
(Jupiter contains most of the rest).

Chemical composition:
Hydrogen 92.1%
Helium 7.8%
Rest of the other 90 naturally occurring elements: 0.1%
The Sun and its Planets to Scale
Energy is created in the core when hydrogen is fused to helium. This energy flows out from
the core by radiation through the radiative layer, by convection through the convective layer,
and by radiation from the surface of the photosphere, which is the portion of the Sun we see.
Layers Of The SUN
• Deep in the sun's core, nuclear fusion converts hydrogen to
helium, which generates energy.
• Particles of light called photons carry this energy through a
spherical shell called the radiative zone to the top layer of the
solar interior, the convection zone.
• There, hot plasmas rise and fall like the ooze in a lava lamp,
which transfers energy to the sun's surface, called the
photosphere.
• Out beyond the sun's photosphere lies the atmosphere, which
consists of the chromosphere and the solar corona.
• The chromosphere looks like a reddish glow fringing the sun,
while the corona's huge white tendrils extend millions of miles
long.
• The chromosphere and corona also emit visible light, but on
Earth's surface, they can be seen only during a total solar
eclipse, when the moon passes between Earth and the sun.
The seasons occur because the tilt of the Earth's axis keeps a constant
orientation as the Earth revolves around the Sun. A. Summer in
northern hemisphere. B. Winter in southern hemisphere
Sun does not rotate as a rigid sphere. The equator of the
Sun rotates faster than the poles of the Sun. This is called
the differential rotation.
Sun’s Magnetic Field
The Sun's corona is threaded with a complex network of magnetic
fields. Solar storms and flares result from changes in the structure
and connections of these fields.

When some of the Sun's magnetic field lines are filled with hot
gas, we see a magnetic loop.
Spectrum analysis shows that sunspots have strong magnetic field, about 1000 times
stronger than the Sun's average. Sunspots usually appear in pairs. The two sunspots of a pair
have different polarities, one would be a magnetic north and the other is a magnetic south,
and can be joined by magnetic field lines. The strong magnetic field locks the gas of the
photosphere in places and inhibits the hotter gas below to rise at the sunspots. As a result,
the sunspots are cooler. Sunspots appear to coincide with changes in the climate of the
Earth. Studies show that during the last ice age, there were very few sunspots
Granules
Convection from inside the sun causes the
photosphere to be subdivided into 1000-
2000km cells.

Energy rises to the surface as gas wells up in the cores of


the granules, and cool gas sinks around their edges.
Temperature of the Sun’s Atmosphere
Solar
Prominences

Prominences are dense clouds of material suspended above the


surface of the Sun by loops of magnetic field. Prominences can
remain in a quiet or quiescent state for days or weeks. However, as
the magnetic loops that support them slowly change, prominences
can erupt and rise off of the Sun over the course of a few minutes or
hours
Solar Flares
Solar flares are tremendous explosions on the surface of the Sun. In a matter of just a few
minutes they heat material to many millions of degrees and release as much energy as a
billion megatons of TNT. They occur near sunspots, usually along the dividing line (neutral
line) between areas of oppositely directed magnetic fields.

Images from SOHO*

*NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft


Corona and
Solar Wind
The Sun’s Corona is
forever expanding into
interplanetary space
filling the solar system
with a constant flow of
solar wind.

Solar wind is the continuous flow of charged particles (ions,


electrons, and neutrons) that comes from the Sun in every direction.

Solar wind consists of slow and fast components. Slow solar wind is a
consequence of the corona’s high temperature. The speed of the solar
wind varies from less than 300 km/s (about half a million miles per
hour) to over 800 km/s.
Beyond that distance, the solar wind gives way to the colder, dense
material that drifts in between stars, forming a boundary called the
heliopause.

So far, just two spacecraft—Voyager 1 and Voyager 2—have crossed


this cosmic threshold, which defines the start of interstellar space.

Sometimes, the sun will also launch huge bubbles of magnetized


particles from its corona, in events called coronal mass ejections
(CMEs). Some CMEs can grow as large as the sun itself and fling as
much as a billion tons of material in a given direction.
Solar wind shapes the Earth's magnetosphere and magnetic storms are illustrated here as
approaching Earth. These storms, which occur frequently, can disrupt communications and
navigational equipment, damage satellites, and even cause blackouts. The white lines
represent the solar wind; the purple line is the bow shock line; and the blue lines
surrounding the Earth represent its protective magnetosphere.
Thermonuclear fusion heats the inside of the star, creating
pressure that stops the collapse and producing a long period of
great stability that defines the main sequence.
By mass, about 70% of the Sun is hydrogen. The rest is
mostly 4He.

Hydrogen is the fuel of the nuclear reaction in the core of the


Sun, and helium is the product. Most of the helium is not
produced by the Sun. It was already there when the Sun was
formed.
Anticipated Future of the Sun
Life Cycle of the Sun
Birth:
Gravitational Collapse of
Interstellar Cloud
"Hayashi Contraction" of
Protostar

Life:
Stability on Main-Sequence
Long life - energy from
nuclear reactions in the core
(E = mc2)

Death:
Lack of fuel, instability,
variability expansion (red
giant, then white dwarf)
THANK YOU

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