THE SUN & ITS LAYERS
Lecture 01
March. 10th, 2009
THE SUN
| Sun’s layers are made of hot gases and they are not solid like the Earth’s
layers
| contains approximately 98% of the total solar system mass
| The Sun appears to have been active for 4.6 billion years and has enough
fuel to go on for another five billion years or so
| Energy from the Sun, in the form of sunlight, supports almost all life on
Earth via photosynthesis, and drives the Earth's climate and weather.
| The surface of the Sun consists of:
y hydrogen (about 74% of its mass, or 92% of its volume),
y helium (about 24% of mass, 7% of volume), and
y trace quantities of other elements, including iron, nickel, oxygen, silicon, sulfur,
magnesium, carbon, neon, calcium, and chromium.
| Sun’s distance from Earth = 152-147 million km
| Sun sends around 100 trillion kw; of which only 35 kw/m2 reaches Earth
due to the distance and the atmospheric reflections…
| Sun radiations reach the Earth in 8 minutes. (speed = 3x10⁸ m/s)
SUN ENERGY’S ARCHITECTURAL
APPLICATIONS
| Heatingg of buildings
g
| Cooling of buildings
| Hot water heating
| Ventilation
V til ti
| Solar responsive architecture
| Landscape and site planning
| Natural lighting
| Photo-chemical reactions
| Germicidal reactions
etc,…
etc
Layers of the Sun:
1. The Core
2. The Radiative Zone
3. The Convective Zone
4 The Photosphere
4.
5. The Chromosphere
6. The Corona
THE CORE
| the innermost layer of the sun and it is a
source for
f all
ll the
th Sun's
S ' energy
| material in the core is firmly attached and has
very high temperature, which is about 15
million degrees Kelvin
| Represents 2% of the sun’s size, and almost
half of the sun’s weight.
THE RADIATIVE ZONE
| Temperature is cooler than the core; it is only a
4 5 million
4.5 illi degrees
d F
Fahrenheit
h h it
| the energy is produced in the core of the sun, it
has to travel from the solar center to the outer
regions. Hence the radiation zone provides an
efficient means of transferring energy near the
core.
THE CONVECTIVE ZONE
| Ranging from 0.7 solar radii* to 1.0 solar
radii,
dii and
d iis b
bubbling
bbli 2 million
illi degrees
d F
F.
| thermal convection occurs as thermal
columns carry hot material to the surface
(photosphere) of the Sun. As soon as the
material cools off at the surface, it plunges
backside downward to the base of the
convection zone, to obtain more heat from the
top of the radiative zone.
Radii ≈ 700,000 km
THE PHOTOSPHERE
| Photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun
| Above the photosphere, sunlight is free to
disseminate into space and its energy escapes
the Sun completely
| The photosphere has a element density of about
1023/m3 (this is about 1% of the particle density
of Earth's atmosphere at sea level)
| Sunspots – indicating giant magnetic storms –
are also
l visible
i ibl on this
thi layer.
l
| Cools of to 10000 degrees F (Sunspots are even
cooler ; about 7800 degrees F
THE CHROMOSPHERE
| a thin layer present above the visible surface,
which
hi h is
i about
b t 2,000
2 000 km
k thick,
thi k andd 50000
degrees F.
| called the chromosphere from the Greek root
chromos, meaning color, for the reason that the
chromosphere is visible as a colored flash at the
beginning and end of total eclipses of the Sun.
THE CORONA
| the outer atmosphere of the Sun
| much larger in volume than the Sun itself
| Can be seen during a total solar eclipse.
Thank you!
