LESSON 2: The Sun

Introduction:

Everything in the Solar System orbits or revolves around the Sun. The Sun contains around 98% of all the
material in the Solar System. The larger an object is, the more gravity it has. Because the Sun is so large,
its powerful gravity attracts all the other objects in the Solar System towards it. At the same time, these
objects, which are moving very rapidly, try to fly away from the Sun, outward into the emptiness of
outer space. The result of the planets trying to fly away, at the same time that the Sun is trying to pull
them inward is that they become trapped half-way in between. Balanced between flying towards the
Sun, and escaping into space, they spend eternity orbiting around their parent star.

The Sun

There are hundreds of millions of stars in space, but the sun is nearest to Earth. The sun is the only star
in our solar system located at the center of it. The occurrences in the sun affect life on Earth.

The sun is a rotating sphere of hot gas. Its rotation varies from 25 days at the equator and 36 days near
the poles. Its mass is about 740 times as great as that of all the planets combined. The huge mass of the
sun creates the gravitation that keeps the other objects travelling around the sun in an orderly manner.
The sun has the diameter of 1,384,000km or 109 times that of the Earth. It has an average density of
only about one – fourth that of the Earth.

A core, radiative zone, and a convective zone make up its internal structure. The sun also has an
atmosphere that is very different from Earth’s. The sun’s atmosphere is composed of the photosphere,
the chromosphere and the corona. The outermost, the photosphere (sphere of light), is a bright, thin
layer of visible light. It is a sea of gases with a temperature of about 6,000˚C. Most of the light and
energy we receive on Earth comes from this layer. By means of an instrument called a spectroscope, it is
possible to analyze light from the sun or any source.

Next, the chromosphere (meaning, color sphere) is a dense layer of colored gases above the
photosphere. Its temperature reaches to about 10,000˚C. The corona is the halo of white light we see
around the sun during a total eclipse. It is the outermost region of the sun’s atmosphere. Its
temperature reaches to about 1 to 1.5 million. Holes appear in the corona, which allow electrically
charged particles to flow into space.
Figure 2. Parts of the Sun

Where does the sun get its energy from?

The hottest part of the sun is the sun’s core, estimated to be 13,600,600 Kelvin (that’s around
13,599,727 degrees C). This heat is produced by a process called nuclear fusion; unlike nuclear fission
where atoms split, nuclear fusion is the joining of nuclei. The process causes hydrogen atoms (of which
there are many within the core) to join to form helium atoms.

There are two types of nuclear fusion, but in the sun’s core, the proton proton chain (PP chain) occurs.

Isotopes are atoms of the same element, with equal numbers of protons but different numbers of
neutrons. Isotopes therefore have the same chemical properties, but different physical properties, i.e.
mass. There are three isotopes of hydrogen: protium (the most common isotope of hydrogen has no
neutrons), deuterium (has one neutron) and tritium (has two neutrons). In a PP chain, two protium
atoms collide at high speeds, and fuse to make one deuterium atom (whilst releasing other products
such as beta decay). A deuterium atom then fuses with a protium atom to make a tritium atom, and
gamma radiation. Lastly, two tritium atoms fuse to form a helium atom. This happens around 9×1037
times every second, helping the sun’s core to produce 99% of the heat of the sun.

Solar phenomena

Solar phenomena are the natural phenomena occurring within the magnetically heated outer
atmospheres in the Sun. These phenomena take many forms, including solar wind, radio wave flux,
energy bursts such as solar flares, coronal mass ejection or solar eruptions, coronal heating and
sunspots.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields rising above the solar
corona. Near solar maxima, the Sun produces about three CMEs every day, whereas solar minima
feature about one every five days. CMEs, along with solar flares of other origin, can disrupt radio
transmissions and damage satellites and electrical transmission line facilities, resulting in potentially
massive and long-lasting power outages.

Coronal mass ejections often appear with other forms of solar activity, most notably solar flares, but no
causal relationship has been established. Most weak flares do not have CMEs; most powerful ones do.
Most ejections originate from active regions on the Sun's surface, such as sunspot groupings associated
with frequent flares. Other forms of solar activity frequently associated with coronal mass ejections are
eruptive prominences, coronal dimming, coronal waves and more ton waves, also called solar tsunami.

Magnetic reconnection is responsible for CME and solar flares. Magnetic reconnection is the name given
to the rearrangement of magnetic field lines when two oppositely directed magnetic fields are brought
together. This rearrangement is accompanied with a sudden release of energy stored in the original
oppositely directed fields.

A solar flare is a sudden flash of brightness observed over the Sun's surface or the solar limb, which is
interpreted as an energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy (about a sixth of the total Sun's
energy output each second or 160 billion megatons of TNT equivalent, over 25,000 times more energy
than released from the impact of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with Jupiter). They may be followed by a
coronal mass ejection. Figure 3. Solar Flares

The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions and atoms through the corona into space. These clouds
typically reach Earth a day or two after the event. Similar phenomena in other stars are known as stellar
flares.

Solar flares strongly influence space weather near the Earth. They can produce streams of highly
energetic particles in the solar wind, known as a solar proton event. These particles can impact the
Earth's magnetosphere in the form of a geomagnetic storm and present radiation hazards to spacecraft
and astronauts.

Some storms are formed on the photosphere at about 30˚ from the equator. This dark spots are called
sunspots. They measure thousands of kilometers in diameters. They move from the eastern edge to the
western edge, lasting for weeks or even months. Sunspots are cooler areas on the sun’s surface. They
are greatest every eleven years.

Sunspots occur where areas of the Sun’s magnetic field loop up from the Sun’s surface, disrupting the
convection of hot gases from below. Sunspots are typically about half the temperature of the
surrounding photosphere and so appear darker. The largest sunspots can be wider than Earth.

When a large number of sunspots appear, radio, television, telegraph, and telephone receptions
become difficult because of increased static. It also marks the appearance of beautiful aurora displays of
northern and southern lights.

Another phenomena observed in the sun is the solar wind. The solar wind consists of particles emitted
from the sun. The speed of the solar wind is not uniform. Its speed can be fast at 800 km/s over corona
holes. This variation in a solar wind speed crushes Earth’s magnetic field and can produce storms in it.
The particles are bits of hydrogen, helium and other elements that collide and smash into bits due to the
sun’s very high temperature.