Post on 26-Dec-2015
The Sun
•a medium sized star•93,000,000 miles away
•109 times diameter of Earth•1 million Earths could fit in the Sun•Made of gas: 82% hydrogen, 17%
helium, 1% other•99% of mass of solar system
•26 day rotation
Layers of the Sun• Core• 27 million degrees F• Fusion, the process that gives
the sun energy occurs here• Photosphere• made of hydrogen gas• layer that we see glowing yellow• 9000 degrees F• Chromosphere• inner atmospheric glowing
red layer of ionized hydrogen gas
• Corona• thin outer atmosphere• extends millions of kilometers• seen as halo during solar eclipse
Sunspots
• an area on the sun that has extremely strong magnetic activity
• magnetic activity does NOT allow heat movement so it is a cool region
• looks like a dark spot• last 2 weeks• occur in 11 year cycles
Solar Flares – eruptions of hot gas that sends ions (charged particles) and radiation
into space to create the solar wind