Deep in the sun's core, nuclear fusion reactions convert hydrogen to helium, which generates energy. Particles of light called photons carry this energy through the sun's spherical shell, called the radiative zone, to the top layer of the solar interior, the convection zone. There, boiling motions of gases (like in a lava lamp) transfer the energy to the surface. This journey takes more than a million years.
The sun's surface, or atmosphere, is divided into three regions: the photosphere, the chromosphere, and the solar corona. The photosphere is the visible surface of the sun and the lowest layer of the atmosphere. Just above the photosphere are the chromosphere and the corona, which also emit visible light but are only seen during a solar eclipse, when the moon passes between the Earth and sun.
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The wind blows about 280 miles (450 kilometers) a second throughout the solar system. Every so often, a patch of particles will burst from the sun in a solar flare, which can disrupt satellite communications and knock out power on Earth. Flares usually stem from the activity of sunspots, cool regions of the photosphere related to a shifting magnetic field inside the sun.
Like many energy sources, the sun is not forever. It is already about 4.5 billion years old and has used up nearly half of the hydrogen in its core. The sun will continue to burn through the hydrogen for another five billion years or so, and then helium will become its primary fuel. The sun will expand to about a hundred times its current size, swallowing Earth and other planets. It will burn as a red giant for another billion years and then collapse into a white dwarf about the size of planet
4. The sun's atmosphere has 3 layers: the photosphere, the chromosphere, and the corona. There are no boundaries between the layers of the sun.
1. Sunspots: these regions are darker and cooler than the rest of the suns photosphere; they are caused by magnetic fields that protrude at that area of the visible surface.
There are four maybe five stages in a Suns lifetime. The first stage is the birth of the sun. According to the Nebular Theory, the Sun and all the other planets of our Solar System began as a giant cloud of gas and dust. Around 4.57 billion years something happened to cause the cloud to collapse, the end result was a gravitational collapse at the center of the cloud. There were pockets of dust collecting matter and turned into a big ball we would eventually call our sun. Our Sun is currently 5,778 K, or 27 million degrees F, which is pretty hot.
The sun will last approximately five billion years, as postulated by Bob Riddle (2009). If considering the sustainability of solar power over the course of time, it is easy to say that we do not need to worry about the availability of this natural resource to produce energy. Conversely, natural gasses, like all fossil fuels, are limited. Once we have collected all of the natural gasses available, it will take millions of years for the earth to produce additional stores of these fuels from the remains of plants and animals (Biology-Online Dictionary). Solar Power is a sustainable producer of energy while fracking for natural gasses is not. Sustainability is not the only difference between these two processes, they differ in their impact on the environment as
Sunspots aren’t that complicated they’re really just dark spots on the sun’s surface. Now these sunspots have a strong magnetic field and always in motion. The sunspots take around 27 days or so to rotate, but we can only see, so much from the Earth’s surface, but for now 27 days would be our best answer. Now you probably haven’t heard about solar maximum or minimum, but they are also related to the topic of sunspots. They really just mean if their is no sunspots, solar minimum, and if their is the most we could possibly see, solar maximum, and both would be seen from earth, not space. Their is this thing where the sun envelops the Earth with energy, such as light and these elecrtically charged magnetic fields, or particles. This is what people call solar weather and after the earth is bathed with the forms of energy, their is only an effect that affects us durring an auroral event. If solar weather hits during an auroral event power grids may get
Sunspots are generated by strong and dense magnetic fields, and these magnetic fields are caused by flowing plasma that gets tangled and moves through the photosphere. [1] However, it is not actually sunspot activity that effects the Earth’s power grid and satellite communications, [2] but rather the solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that can be caused by sunspots that cause problems. [3]
Sunspots are regions on the surface of the sun, which is called the photosphere. Sunspots are cool, dark and temporary. The surface temperate of the sun is 6000 Celsius and sunspots are about 1500 Celsius. They can last up to hours or even months. Sunspots usually expand and contract as they move across the surface of the sun and can be as large as 80,000 km in diameter. Sunspots are magnetic fields on the sun, which are thousand times stronger than the magnetic fields on the earth. The magnetic field is the strongest in the darker parts of the sunspot, which is called umbra. The field is weaker in the lighter part, which is the penumbra. These are solar "storms", a kind of "burp" where the Sun ejects high-speed and energetic particles, which
At the center of the sun, the temperature is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). As the temperature on its surface rises and falls, the sun boils and bubbles. Particles escape from the star from the sunspot regions on the surface, hurtling particles of plasma, known as solar wind, into space. It takes these winds around 40 hours to reach Earth. When they do, they can cause the dramatic displays known as the aurora borealis. [Infographics: How the Northern Lights Work & Anatomy of Sun Storms & Solar
The overall movement and rotation of the sun effect the magnetic fields in the sun. This movement churns up plasma in the convection zone*, which in turn stirs up electrical currents, and finally creates a magnetic field. Within these magnetic fields exists field lines, the main component of the solar flares. Loops in the magnetic field lines rise with energy from the surface. On one end of the loop exists a positive while the other end is negative. Plasma underneath stirs the poles and pumps numerous amounts of energy into them. However, if the poles are twisted enough the loops cross which creates a short circuit resulting in a tremendous outward explosion. The result is a solar flare. Within these solar flares, nets of plasma are flung into space and can be described as coronal mass ejections (solar storms). These CMEs flung into the solar system are what can wreak havoc on the
The different colors are an electrical reaction depending on which gasses react to the protons and electrons. The color and shape are also due to how agitated the gasses become when the electron mingle with it. This large amount of energy makes the Magnetosphere lose its equilibrium causing the reaction in the first place. Each gas has a specific color when interacting and varies between them depending on height of reaction, which atoms were struck, and at which rate the reaction occurs.This is all started by an electric connection between the Sun and the earth. The energy that comes from the sun are all electronically charged particles called Solar flares. These flares interact with the earth’s magnetic fields.The properties that are in a specific solar flare, ie. protons and electrons, determine how much of the Solar Flare enters the Magnetosphere and later the Atmosphere.The Aurora’s are not a direct source from the sun, as previously thought. The energy is stored temporarily within the tail end of the
These lights form when charged particles emit from the sun during a solar flare and penetrate the earth’s magnetic shield. These particles then collide with atoms and molecules that are in our atmosphere. The collisions then result in tiny bursts of light which make up the
The sun is actually a star just like the stars that shine throughout the night. The sun is a medium-sized star measuring 864,948mi (1,392,000km) across--100 times the diameter of the earth (Farndon 47). The core, the convection zone, and the photosphere are four main layers of the sun. The core makes energy from hydrogen for the world’s sight (Elvis 12). About 99 percent of the energy generated by the sun through nuclear fusion is produced in its core (Koehler 14). Photons transport energy generated in the sun’s core. This movement from the sun’s core is not instant, in fact, it can take up to 150,000 years for energy to reach the photosphere. From the photosphere, energy generated in the core streams into the sun’s atmosphere and out into space. This energy that lights and heats the earth (14).
The first is the precursor stage where magnetic energy is released. In the second stage, known as the impulsive stage, protons and electrons energies are accelerated. During this stage radio waves, hard x-rays, and gamma rays are emitted. In the third stage, called the decay stage, is the buildup of soft x-rays and then the decay of the soft x-rays. The duration of the precursor, impulsive, and decay stages can take anywhere from a few seconds up to one hour. Solar flares form in a layer of the sun called the corona, the outermost layer, where the gases can reach a few million degrees Kelvin(“Solar Flares”). Solar flares normally erupt from sunspots. Typically, these sunspots are temporarily cooler, darker, and the local magnetic field is relatively
We might look at the sun and think “Hmm, well it just looks like a big ball of fire to me.” Good! The sun is a big ball of fire, but it doesn’t burn exactly like fire, it’s more a burning glow. This glowing heat, which is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, is not produced by burning like in a chemical reaction but rather by fusion like in a nuclear reaction. Now, to understand how the sun enters the final stage of its life cycle, it is important we fully understand how the sun was created. For humans, one of the earliest stages of life is birth. A human is
Sunspots, where most solar flares occur, are dark patches on the surface of the sun. This is where the gas of the sun is not so hot and causes it to take on a different color. A typical sunspot is about 22,000 miles in diameter and the number visible sunspots from satellites are about 5 to 100, it varies.