The Sun, Sun spots and its Stormy Surface
Every morning the Sun rises into the sky and brings light and warmth to earth. Without the Sun’s light and heat the earth would be dark, cold and lifeless planet. The Sun is different from all the other bodies in the Solar System. It is very much bigger as much as it could swallow more than a million earths ! Iy is also a great ball so searing hot, blowing gas. It is the only body that gives out light of its own. All the other bodies – Planets, Moons and Comets- shine because they reflect the Sun’s light.
The Sun, in fact, is a Star. It is much like the other stars seen in the sky. But it appears bigger and brighter because it is very much closer to the earth. A beam of light can reach the Sun in 8 minutes. At the same speed it will take 4 years and 3 months to reach the nearest Star !
Like other stars the Sun is made up of Gas called Hydrogen. This gas acts acts like a fuel to produce the energy which keeps the Sun shining. The energy is produced deep inside the Sun. It travels slowly to the surface from where it is given out, or radiated aslight and heat in Space. We call the bright surface of the Sun the photosphere.
The sun is having a diameter at equator of 1,392,000 km and its surface temperature is 55000 C. It is 333,000 times that of the mass of the earth and has a density of 1.4 as compared to water Spins on its axis in 25 days and 9 hours.
The Surface of the Sun bubbles and heaves like boiling water.
Its surface appears to be spread with small spots and particles showing little bundles or ‘Cells’ of Gas rise and fall.
Some of the gas escapes from the surface to form an atmosphere around the Sun. The thicker and the lower part of the atmosphere is called the ‘Chromosphere ( Color-Sphere) because it is colored Pink. The thinner and the outer part is called ‘Corona” (Crown). From the earth we can normally see the pink chromosphere and pearly white corona during an eclipse. When the Photosphere that is the bright surface is blotted out by the Moon.
Great fountains of gases called ‘Prominences’ erupt from the Sun surface. They leap hundreds of thousands of kilometers into the atmosphere, forming great loops. They take on the shape because they are held by the Sun’s magnetism or Magnetic field, which acts in the curved lines.
The Sun’s magnetism Also causes dark spots to appear on the surface. These SUN SPOTS are regions where the surface is much cooler. Around some SUN SPOTS violent eruptions called flares may occur. They send out streams of particles into space
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