SOLAR SYSTEM

Inside the Sun

The giant star that keeps us all alive…
A
celestial wonder, the Sun is a huge star formed from a
massive gravitational collapse when space dust and gas
from a nebula collided, It became an orb 100 times
bigger and weighing over 300,000 times that of Earth. Made up
of 70 per cent hydrogen and about 28 per cent helium (plus
other gases), the Sun is the centre of our solar system and the
largest celestial body anywhere near us.
“The surface of the Sun is a dense layer of plasma at a
temperature of 5,800 degrees kelvin that is continually moving
due to the action of convective motions driven by heating from
below,” says David Alexander, a professor of physics and
astronomy at Rice University. “These convective motions show
up as a distribution of what are called granulation cells about
1,000 kilometers across and which appear across the whole
solar surface.”
At its core, the Sun’s temperature and pressure are so high
and the hydrogen atoms are moving so fast that it causes
fusion, turning hydrogen atoms into helium. Electromagetic
radiation travels out from the Sun’s core to its surface, escaping
into space as electromagnetic radiation, a blinding light, and
incredible levels of solar heat. In fact, the core of the Sun is
actually hotter than the surface, but when heat escapes from
the surface, the temperature rises to over 1-2 million degrees.
Alexander explained that astronomers do not fully understand
why the Sun’s atmosphere is so hot, but think it has something
to do with magnetic fields.

Radiative zone
The first 500,000k of the Sun is a radioactive layer
that transfers energy from the core, mostly toward Beneath the
surface of
the outer layers, passed from atom to atom

Sun’s core
The core of a Sun is
a dense, extremely
hot region – about
the Sun
What is the Sun
15 million degrees
– that produces a
nuclear fusion and
made of?
emits heat through
the layers of the
Sun to the surface Convective zone
The top 30 per cent of
the Sun is a layer of hot
plasma that is
constantly in motion,
heated from below

The Statistics
The Sun
All images courtesy of NASA

Diameter: 100 times Earth

Right conditions Engine room Mass: 300,000 times Earth
The core of the Sun, which acts like a The centre of a star is like an engine Average surface temp:
nuclear reactor, is just the right size room that produces the nuclear fusion 1-2 million degrees
and temperature to product light required for radiation and light Core temp: 15 million degrees

014
DID YOU KNOW? The next total solar eclipse will be in 2090 in the UK

Magnetic influence
How the Sun affects the
Earth’s magnetic field

Solar wind
Solar wind shapes the
Earth’s magnetosphere and
magnetic storms are
illustrated here as
approaching Earth

Plasma release Bow shock line

The Sun’s magnetic field and plasma The purple line is the bow shock line and
releases directly affect Earth and the the blue lines surrounding the Earth represent
rest of the solar system its protective magnetosphere

What is a Solar eclipses

When the Moon blocks out the Sun
solar flare? A solar eclipse is a unique phenomena where the Moon passes
directly into a line between the Earth and the Sun, partially or
A massive explosion, but one that completely blocking our view of the Sun. The Sun is blocked
happens to be several million according to the relative orbits of each celestial body. There
degrees in temperature… are two kinds of eclipses: one where the Moon orbit shows the
outer edge of the Sun, or where the Moon lines up perfectly
“A solar flare is a rapid release of energy in the solar and the Sun is blocked completely from view.
atmosphere (mostly the chromosphere and corona)

How
resulting in localised heating of plasma to tens of millions
of degrees, acceleration of electrons and protons to high
energies, some to near the speed of light, and expulsion of

big is
material into space,” says Alexander. “These
electromagnetic disturbances here on Earth pose
potential dangers for Earth-orbiting satellites, space-
walking astronauts, crews on high-altitude spacecraft,
and power grids on Earth.” the Sun?
Our Sun has a
diameter of
1.4 million km
and Earth a
diameter of
Sometimes, the orbits of the Earth and Sun line up
almost
Solar flares can cause geomagnetic storms on the
Sun, including shock waves and plasma expulsions
perfectly so that the Sun is blocked (eclipsed) by the
Moon, shown here with a shadow cast from the
13,000km
eclipse, taken from the ISS

What is a sunspot?
Signifying cooler areas, sunspots show up as dark dots on the
photosphere (the visible layer of plasma across the Sun’s
surface). These ‘cool’ regions – about 1,000 degrees cooler than
the surface temperature – are associated with strong magnetic
fields. Criss-crossing magnetic-field lines can disturb the flow
of heat from the core, creating pockets of intense activity. The
build up of heat around a sunspot can be released as a solar
flare or coronal mass ejection, which is separate to but often If the Sun were the size of a
accompanies larger flares. Plasma from a CME ejects from the basketball, Earth would be a little
Sun at over 1 million miles per hour. dot no more than 2.2 mm

015
 SOLAR SYSTEM

It’s the Sun, but not

as we know it
T
hese amazing images of the Sun are the first taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics
Observatory (SDO). Taken on 30 March 2010, this false colour image traces the
Image © NASA

different gas temperatures with reds relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin or
107,540 F), while blues and greens are hotter (1 million Kelvin or 1,799,540 F). The SDO
provides images with clarity ten times better than high-definition TV.

016