What is the sun definition for children. Solar system. Sun. This is a middle aged star
Sun
The Sun is the closest star to us. The distance to it is small by astronomical standards: it takes only 8 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to the Earth. This is a star that was formed after supernova explosions, it is rich in iron and other elements. Around which such a planetary system was able to form, on the third planet of which - Earth - life arose. Five billion years is the age of our Sun. The sun is the star around which our planet revolves. The average distance from the Earth to the Sun, i.e. The semimajor axis of the Earth's orbit is 149.6 million km = 1 AU. (astronomical unit). The Sun is the center of our planetary system, which besides it includes 9 large planets, several dozen planetary satellites, several thousand asteroids (minor planets), comets, meteoroids, interplanetary dust and gas. The Sun is a star that shines fairly evenly over millions of years, as proven by modern biological studies of the remains of blue-green algae. If the surface temperature of the Sun were to change by just 10%, life on Earth would likely be wiped out. Our star evenly and calmly radiates the energy so necessary to support life on Earth. The size of the Sun is very large. Thus, the radius of the Sun is 109 times, and the mass is 330,000 times greater than the radius and mass of the Earth. The average density is low - only 1.4 times the density of water. The sun doesn't rotate solid, the speed of rotation of points on the surface of the Sun decreases from the equator to the poles.
· Weight: 2*10 30 kg;
· Radius: 696,000 km;
· Density: 1.4 g/cm3;
· Surface temperature:+5500 C;
· Rotation period relative to stars: 25.38 Earth days;
· Distance from Earth (average): 149.6 million km;
· Age: about 5 billion years;
· Spectral class: G2 V;
· Luminosity: 3.86*10 26 W, 3.86*10 23 kW
The position of the Sun in our Galaxy
The Sun is located in the plane of the Galaxy and is removed from its center by 8 kpc (26,000 light years) and from the plane of the Galaxy by approximately 25 pc (48 light years). In the region of the Galaxy where our Sun is located, the stellar density is 0.12 stars per pc3. The sun (and solar system) moves at a speed of 20 km/s towards the border of the constellations Lyra and Hercules. This is explained by local motion within nearby stars. This point is called the apex of the Sun's movement, the point on celestial sphere, opposite the apex, is called antiapex. At this point the directions of the natural velocities of the stars closest to the Sun intersect. The movements of the stars closest to the Sun occur at low speed; this does not prevent them from participating in orbit around the galactic center. The solar system is involved in rotation around the center of the Galaxy at a speed of about 220 km/s. This movement occurs in the direction of the constellation Cygnus. The period of revolution of the Sun around the galactic center is about 220 million years.
Internal structure of the Sun
The sun is a hot ball of gas, the temperature in the center of which is very high, so much so that nuclear reactions can occur there. At the center of the Sun, the temperature reaches 15 million degrees, and the pressure is 200 billion times higher than at the surface of the Earth. The sun is a spherically symmetrical body in equilibrium. Density and pressure quickly increase in depth; the increase in pressure is explained by the weight of all overlying layers. At each interior point of the Sun, the condition of hydrostatic equilibrium is satisfied. Pressure at any distance from the center is balanced by gravitational attraction. The radius of the Sun is approximately 696,000 km. In the central region with a radius of about a third of the solar core, nuclear reactions occur. Then, through the radiative transfer zone, energy is transferred by radiation from the inner regions of the Sun to the surface. Both photons and neutrinos are born in the zone of nuclear reactions at the center of the Sun. But if neutrinos interact very weakly with matter and instantly freely leave the Sun, then photons are repeatedly absorbed and scattered until they reach the outer, more transparent layers of the Sun’s atmosphere, which is called the photosphere. While the temperature is high - more than 2 million degrees - energy is transferred by radiant thermal conduction, that is, photons. The zone of opacity, caused by the scattering of photons by electrons, extends to approximately 2/3R of the radius of the Sun. As the temperature decreases, the opacity increases greatly, and the diffusion of photons lasts about a million years. At approximately 2/3R there is a convective zone. In these layers, the opacity of the substance becomes so great that large-scale convective movements occur. Convection begins here, that is, the mixing of hot and cold layers of matter. The rise time of a convective cell is relatively short - several decades. Acoustic waves propagate in the solar atmosphere, similar to sound waves in air. In the upper layers of the solar atmosphere, waves that arise in the convective zone and in the photosphere transfer part of the mechanical energy of convective movements to the solar substance and produce heating of the gases of subsequent layers of the atmosphere - the chromosphere and corona. As a result, the upper layers of the photosphere with a temperature of about 4500 K are the “coldest” on the Sun. Both deep into and upward from them, the temperature of the gases increases rapidly. Every solar atmosphere is constantly fluctuating. Both vertical and horizontal waves with lengths of several thousand kilometers propagate in it. The oscillations are resonant in nature and occur with a period of about 5 minutes. The interior of the Sun rotates faster; The core rotates especially quickly. It is precisely the features of such rotation that can lead to the emergence magnetic field Sun.
The modern structure of the Sun arose as a result of evolution (Fig. 9.1, a, b). The observable layers of the Sun are called its atmosphere. Photosphere- its deepest part, and the deeper, the hotter the layers. In a thin (about 700 km) layer of the photosphere, the observed radiation of the Sun arises. In the outer, cooler layers of the photosphere, light is partially absorbed - dark regions are formed against the background of a continuous spectrum. Fraunhofer lines. Through a telescope you can observe the granularity of the photosphere. Small light spots - granules(up to 900 km in size) - surrounded by dark gaps. This convection occurring in the internal regions causes movements in the photosphere - hot gas rushes out in the granules, and sinks between them. These movements also extend into the higher layers of the Sun's atmosphere - chromosphere And crown Therefore, they are hotter than the upper part of the photosphere (4500 K). The chromosphere can be observed during eclipses. Visible spicules- compacted gas tongues. The study of the spectra of the chromosphere shows its heterogeneity, gas mixing occurs intensely, and the temperature of the chromosphere reaches 10,000 K. Above the chromosphere is the rarest part of the solar atmosphere - the corona; it fluctuates all the time with a period of 5 minutes. Density and pressure quickly build inward, where the gas is highly compressed. The pressure exceeds hundreds of billions of atmospheres (10 16 Pa), and the density is up to 1.5 10 5 kg/m. The temperature also increases greatly, reaching 15 million K.
Magnetic fields play a significant role on the Sun, since the gas is in a plasma state. With an increase in field strength in all layers of its atmosphere, solar activity increases, manifested in flares, of which there are up to 10 per day in peak years. Flares with a size of about 1000 km and a duration of about 10 minutes usually occur in neutral regions between spots of opposite polarity. During a flare, energy is released equal to energy 1 million megaton explosion hydrogen bombs. Radiation at this time is observed both in the radio range and in the X-ray range. Energetic particles appear - protons, electrons and other nuclei that make up solar cosmic rays.
Sunspots move across the disk; Noticing this, Galileo concluded that it was rotating around its axis. Observations of sunspots showed that the Sun rotates in layers: near the equator the period is about 25 days, and at the poles - 33 days. The number of sunspots fluctuates over 11 years from greatest to smallest. The so-called Wolf numbers are taken as a measure of this spot-forming activity: W= 10g+f, Here g- number of groups of spots, f - total number spots on the disc. No stains W= 0, with one spot - W= 11. On average, a stain lasts for almost a month. The sizes of the spots are on the order of hundreds of kilometers. The spots are usually accompanied by a group of light stripes - torches. It turned out that strong magnetic fields (up to 4000 oersteds) are observed in the area of the sunspots. The fibers visible on the disk are named prominences. These are masses of denser and colder gas, rising above the chromosphere for hundreds and even thousands of kilometers.
In the visible region of the spectrum, the Sun absolutely dominates on Earth over all other celestial bodies, its brilliance is 10 10 times greater than that of Sirius. In other spectral ranges it looks much more modest. Radio emission emanates from the Sun, the same in power as the radio source Cassiopeia A; There are only 10 sources in the sky that are 10 times weaker than it. It was noticed only in 1940 by military radar stations. The analysis shows that short-wave radio emission occurs near the photosphere, and at meter waves it is generated in the solar corona. A similar picture of radiation power is observed in the X-ray range - only for six sources it is an order of magnitude weaker. The first X-ray images of the Sun were obtained in 1948 using equipment on a high-altitude rocket. It has been established that the sources are associated with active regions on the Sun and are located at altitudes of 10-1000000 km above the photosphere, where the temperature reaches 3-6 million K. The X-ray flash usually follows the optical one with a delay of 2 minutes. X-ray radiation comes from the upper layers of the chromosphere and corona. In addition, the Sun emits streams of particles - corpuscle. Solar corpuscular streams have a great impact on the upper layers of the atmosphere of our planet.
Origin of the Sun
The Sun arose from an infrared dwarf, which, in turn, arose from a giant planet. The giant planet even earlier originated from an icy planet, and that planet came from a comet. This comet occurred on the periphery of the Galaxy in one of the two ways in which comets occur on the periphery of the Solar System. Either the comet from which the Sun emerged many billions of years later was formed by the crushing of larger comets or icy planets during their collision, or this comet passed into the Galaxy from intergalactic space.
Hypothesis about the emergence of the Sun from a gas nebula
So, according to the classical hypothesis, the solar system arose from gas and dust
a cloud consisting of 98% hydrogen. In the initial era, the density of matter in this nebula was very low. Individual “pieces” of the nebula moved relative to each other at random speeds (about 1 km/s). During the process of rotation, such clouds first turn into flat disk-shaped condensations. Then, in the process of rotation and gravitational compression, a concentration of matter with the highest density occurs in the center. As I. Shklovsky writes, “as a result of the existence of a “magnetic” connection between the disk separated from the protostar and its main mass, due to the tension of the lines of force, the rotation of the protostar will be slowed down, and the disk will begin to move outward in a spiral. Over time, the disk will “smear” due to friction “, and part of its matter will turn into planets, which will thus “carry away” with them a significant part of the moment.”
Thus, suns are formed in the center of the cloud, and planets are formed along the periphery.
Several hypotheses have been put forward regarding the similar formation of suns and planets. Some are inclined to associate this process with an external cause - a flare in the neighborhood of stars. Thus, S.K. Vsekhsvyatsky believes that a star flared up near our gas and dust cloud 5 billion years ago at a distance of 3.5 light years. This led to the heating of the gas and dust nebula, the formation of the Sun and planets. Clayton shares the same opinion (this idea was first expressed in 1955 by the Estonian astronomer Epic). According to Clayton, the compression that resulted in the formation of the Sun was caused by a supernova, which, when exploding, imparted motion to the interstellar matter and, like a broom, pushed it ahead of itself; This happened until, due to the force of gravity, a stable cloud was formed, which continued to compress, converting its own compression energy into heat. This entire mass began to heat up, and in a very short time (tens of millions of years) the temperature inside the cloud reached 10-15 million degrees. By this time, thermonuclear reactions were in full swing and the compression process had ended. It is generally accepted that it was at this “moment,” four to six billion years ago, that the Sun was born.
This hypothesis, which has a small number of supporters, was confirmed as a result of a study in 1977 by an American scientist from the California Institute of Technology of the “Allende meteorite,” found in a deserted area of northern Mexico. An unusual combination of chemical elements was found in it. The excessive presence of calcium, barium and neodymium in it indicates that they fell into the meteorite during a supernova explosion in the neighborhood of our solar system. This outbreak occurred less than 2 million years before the formation of the Solar System. This date was obtained from the results of determining the age of the meteorite using the radioisotope aluminum-26, which has a half-life T = 0.738 million years.
Other scientists, and they are the majority, believe that the process of formation of the Sun and planets occurred as a result of the natural development of a gas and dust cloud during its rotation and compaction. According to one of these hypotheses, it is believed that the condensation of the Sun and planets occurred from a hot gas nebula (according to I. Kant and P. Laplace), and according to the other, from a cold gas and dust cloud (according to O. Yu. Schmidt). Subsequently, the cold start hypothesis was developed by academicians V. G. Fesenkov, A. P. Vinogradov and others.
The most consistent supporter of the hypothesis of the formation of the Solar System from the primary “solar” nebula is the American astronomer Cameron. It connects the formation of stars and planetary systems into a single process. Supernova explosions during the condensation of clouds of the interstellar medium due to their gravitational instability are, as it were, “stimulators” of the star formation process.
However, none of the listed hypotheses completely satisfies scientists, since with their help it is impossible to explain all the nuances associated with the origin and development of the Solar system. When planets form from a “hot” beginning, it is believed that at an early stage they were high-temperature homogeneous bodies consisting of liquid and gas phases. Subsequently, when such bodies cooled, iron cores were first released from the liquid phase, then the mantle was formed from sulfides, iron oxides and silicates. The gas phase led to the formation of the atmosphere of the planets and the hydrosphere on Earth.
etc.................
The Sun, the central body of the Solar System, is a hot ball of gas. It is 750 times more massive than all other bodies in the Solar System combined. That is why everything in the solar system can be approximately considered to revolve around the sun. The Sun “outweighs” the Earth by more than 330,000 times. The solar diameter could accommodate a chain of 109 planets like ours. The Sun is the closest star to Earth and the only star whose disk is visible to the naked eye. All other stars, light years away from us, even when viewed through the most powerful telescopes, do not reveal any details of their surfaces. Light from the Sun reaches us in 8 and a third minutes.
The Sun rushes towards the constellation Hercules in an orbit around the center of our Galaxy, covering more than 200 km every second. The Sun and the center of the Galaxy are separated by an abyss of 25,000 light years. A similar abyss lies between the Sun and the outskirts of the Galaxy. Our star is located near the galactic plane, not far from the boundary of one of the spiral arms.
The size of the Sun (1,392,000 km in diameter) is very large by earthly standards, but astronomers, at the same time, call it a yellow dwarf - in the world of stars, the Sun does not stand out as anything special. However, in last years, there is more and more evidence in favor of some unusualness of our Sun. In particular, the Sun emits less ultraviolet light than other stars of the same type. The Sun has more mass than similar stars. In addition, these stars, which are similar to the Sun, are seen to be inconstant; they change their brightness, that is, they are variable stars. The sun does not noticeably change its brightness. All this is not a reason for pride, but a basis for more detailed research and serious checks.
The solar radiation power is 3.8*1020 MW. Only about one-half of a billionth of the total energy from the Sun reaches the Earth. Imagine a situation in which 15 standard apartments of 45 sq.m. flooded to the ceiling with water. If this amount of water is the entire radiation power of the Sun, then the Earth's share will be less than a teaspoon. But it is thanks to this energy that the water cycle occurs on Earth, the winds blow, life has developed and is developing. All the energy hidden in fossil fuels (oil, coal, peat, gas) is also originally the energy of the Sun.
The Sun emits its energy in all wavelengths. But in different ways. 48% of the radiation energy is in the visible part of the spectrum, and the maximum corresponds to the yellow-green color. About 45% of the energy lost by the Sun is carried away by infrared rays. Gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet and radio radiation account for only 8%. However, the solar radiation in these ranges is so strong that it is very noticeable at distances of even hundreds of solar radii. The Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere protect us from the harmful effects of solar radiation.
Basic characteristics of the Sun
| Weight | 1,989*10 30 kg |
| Mass (in Earth masses) | 332,830 |
| Radius at the equator | 695000 km |
| Radius at the equator (in Earth radii) | 108,97 |
| Average density | 1410 kg/m 3 |
| Duration of sidereal day (rotation period) | 25.4 days (equator) – 36 days (poles) |
| Second escape velocity | 618.02 km/sec |
| Distance from the center of the Galaxy | 25,000 light years |
| Orbital period around the galactic center | ~200 million years |
| Speed of movement around the galactic center | 230 km/s |
| Surface temperature | 5800–6000 K |
| Luminosity | 3,8 * 10 26 W (3.827*10 33 erg/sec) |
| Estimated age | 4.6 billion years |
| Absolute magnitude | +4,8 |
| Relative magnitude | -26,8 |
| Spectral class | G2 |
| Classification | yellow dwarf |
|
Chemical composition (by number of atoms) |
|
| Hydrogen | 92,1% |
| Helium | 7,8% |
| Oxygen | 0,061% |
| Carbon | 0,030% |
| Nitrogen | 0,0084% |
| Neon | 0,0076% |
| Iron | 0,0037% |
| Silicon | 0,0031% |
| Magnesium | 0,0024% |
| Sulfur | 0,0015% |
| Others | 0,0015% |
The sun is our everything! This is light, this is warmth and much more. Without the Sun, life would not have arisen on Earth. Therefore, I really want to dedicate this material to our luminary.
The Sun is the only star located at the center of our solar system and the Earth's climate and weather conditions depend on it.
By galactic standards, our star is barely noticeable, even in the nearest space. The Sun is just one of the stars of average size and mass, among the 100 billion stars found in our Galaxy, the Milky Way alone.
Our star is composed of 70% hydrogen and 28% helium. The remaining 2% is occupied by particles emitted into space and new elements synthesized by the star itself.
The hot gases that formed the Sun—mostly hydrogen and helium—exist in an incredibly hot, electrified state called plasma.
The energy power of the Sun is about 386 billion megawatts and is produced by the process of fusion of hydrogen nuclei, which is commonly called thermonuclear fusion.
In the distant, distant past, the Sun shone weaker than it does now. Continuous observations of radiation maxima over several decades allowed scientists to conclude that the increase in the luminosity of the Sun continues in our time. Thus, in just the last few cycles, the total luminosity of the Sun has increased by approximately 0.1%. Such changes have a huge impact on our lives.
In addition to thermal energy and the light we see, the Sun emits a gigantic stream of charged particles into space called the solar wind. It moves through the solar system at a speed of approximately 450 kilometers per second.
Age of the Sun According to scientists' calculations, it is about 4.6 billion years. This makes it highly likely that it will continue to exist in its current form for another 5 billion years. Eventually, the Sun will engulf the Earth. Once all the hydrogen has burned out, the Sun will exist for another 130 million years, burning helium. During this period it will expand to such an extent that it will engulf Mercury, Venus and Earth. At this stage, it can be called a red giant.
Sunlight takes approximately 8 minutes to reach the Earth's surface. With an average distance of 150 million kilometers to Earth and light traveling at 300,000 kilometers per second, simply dividing one number by the other (distance by speed) gives us an approximate time of 500 seconds, or 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Particles that reach Earth within those few minutes take millions of years to travel from the Sun's core to its surface.
The Sun moves in its orbit at a speed of 220 kilometers per second. The sun is located almost on the outskirts milky way 24,000-26,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy, and therefore takes 225-250 million years to complete one orbit around the center of the Milky Way.
The distance from the Sun to the Earth varies throughout the year. Because the Earth moves in an elliptical orbit around the Sun, the distance between these celestial bodies varies from 147 to 152 million kilometers. The average distance between the Earth and the Sun is called an astronomical unit (AU).
The pressure at the Sun's core is 340 billion times greater than atmospheric pressure at the Earth's surface.
The diameter of the Sun is equivalent to 109 times the diameter of the Earth.
The surface area of the Sun is equivalent to 11,990 times the surface of the Earth.
If the Sun were the size of a football, Jupiter would be the size of a golf ball, and the Earth would be the size of a pea.
The force of gravity on the surface of the Sun is 28 times greater than on Earth. Therefore, a person who weighs 60 kg on Earth will weigh 1680 kg on the Sun. Simply put, we will be crushed by our own weight.
Light from the Sun reaches Pluto's surface in 5.5 hours.
The Sun's closest neighbor is the star Proxima Centauri. It is located 4.3 light years away.
Approximately a trillion solar neutrinos are passing through your body as you read this sentence.
The brightness of the Sun is equivalent to the brightness of 4 trillion trillion 100-watt light bulbs.
An area of the Sun's surface the size of a postage stamp has the light of 1.5 million candles.
The amount of energy reaching the surface of our planet is 6000 times greater than the energy demand of people around the world.
The Earth receives 94 billion megawatts of energy from the Sun. This is 40,000 times the annual requirement of the United States.
The total amount of fossil fuels on planet Earth is equivalent to 30 solar days.
A total solar eclipse lasts a maximum of 7 minutes and 40 seconds.
There are about 4-5 solar eclipses per year.
Physical characteristics of the Sun
The beautiful symmetry of a total solar eclipse occurs because the Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther from the Earth, making the 2 bodies the same across in size in the sky.
The full size of the Sun could accommodate 1.3 million Earth-sized planets.
99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System is concentrated in the Sun. The mass of the Sun is 1,989,100,000,000,000,000,000 billion kg, or 333,060 times the mass of the Earth.
The temperature inside the Sun can reach 15 million degrees Celsius. At the Sun's core, energy is generated by nuclear fusion as hydrogen turns into helium. Since hot objects tend to expand, the Sun would explode like a giant bomb if it weren't for its enormous gravitational force. The temperature on the surface of the Sun is closer to 5600 degrees Celsius.
The Earth's core is almost as hot as the surface of the Sun, which is approximately 5600 degrees Celsius. Colder are certain areas called sunspots (3,800°C).
Different parts of the Sun rotate at different speeds. Unlike regular planets, the Sun is a large ball of incredibly hot hydrogen gas. Due to its mobility, different parts of the Sun rotate at different speeds. To see how quickly a surface rotates, you need to observe the movement of sunspots relative to its surface. Spots at the equator take 25 Earth days to complete one rotation, while spots at the poles complete a rotation in 36 days.
The Sun's outer atmosphere is hotter than its surface. The surface of the Sun reaches a temperature of 6000 degrees Kelvin. But it's actually much smaller than the Sun's atmosphere. Above the surface of the Sun is a region of the atmosphere called the chromosphere, where temperatures can reach 100,000 Kelvin. But that doesn't mean anything. There's an even more distant region called the coronal region, which extends to a volume even larger than the Sun itself. Temperatures in the corona can reach 1 million Kelvin.
Inside the Sun, where thermonuclear reactions occur, the temperature reaches an unimaginable 15 million degrees.
The Sun is an almost perfect sphere with a difference of only 10 km in diameter between the poles and the equator. The average radius of the Sun is 695,508 km (109.2 x Earth's radius).
In terms of magnitude, it is classified as a yellow dwarf (G2V).
The diameter of the Sun is 1,392,684 kilometers.
The sun has a very strong magnetic field. Solar flares occur when energetic streams of charged particles are released by the Sun during magnetic storms, which we see as sunspots. In sunspots, the magnetic lines are twisted and they rotate, just like tornadoes on Earth.
Does water exist on the Sun? Quite a strange question... After all, we know that there is a lot of hydrogen in the Sun, the main element of water, but in order for there to be water, we also need such chemical element like oxygen. Not long ago, an international group of scientists discovered that the Sun is water (specifically, water vapor).
The sun in history
Ancient cultures built stone monuments or modified rocks to mark the movements of the Sun and Moon, the changing seasons, created calendars and calculated eclipses.
Despite the correct thinking of some ancient Greek thinkers, many believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth, starting with the ancient Greek scientist Ptolemy introducing the "geocentric" model in 150 BC.
It was not until 1543 that Nicolaus Copernicus described a heliocentric, sun-centered model of the solar system, and in 1610, Galileo Galilei's discovery of the moons of Jupiter showed that not all celestial bodies orbit the Earth.
Solar Research
In 1990, NASA and the European Space Agency launched the Ulysses probe to take the first images of the polar regions of the Sun. In 2004, NASA's Genesis spacecraft brought samples of solar wind back to Earth for study.
The most famous spacecraft(launched in December 1995) which observes the Sun is the solar and heliospheric observatory SOHO, built by NASA and ESA, and continuously monitors the luminary by sending countless photographs back to Earth. It was created to study the solar wind, as well as the outer layers of the Sun and its internal structure. It has imaged the structure of sunspots below the surface, measured the acceleration of the solar wind, detected coronal waves and solar tornadoes, detected more than 1,000 comets, and enabled more accurate space weather predictions.
A more recent NASA mission is the STEREO spacecraft. That's two spaceship, launched in October 2006. They were designed to view solar activity from two different vantage points simultaneously to recreate a three-dimensional perspective of solar activity, allowing astronomers to better predict space weather.
The sun vibrates due to a set of acoustic waves, like a bell. If our vision were sharp enough, we could see the vibrations spreading along the surface of its disk, creating intricate patterns. Astronomers from Stanford University have carefully studied the movements on the surface of the Sun. Solar sound waves typically have a very low vibration frequency that cannot be detected by the human ear. In order to be able to hear, scientists amplified them 42,000 times and pressed for a few seconds of waves measured over 40 days.
Alexander Kosovichev, team leader and member of the Stanford solar oscillation team, has found a simple way to convert data from equipment that measures the vertical motion of the sun's surface into sound. Stephen Taylor, a professor of music at the University of Illinois, composed the music for this video and sounds.
The team used new method to calculate the spectrum of water at sunspot temperatures. In their research since 1995, the team has documented the presence of water - not in liquid form, of course, but in a vapor state - in the dark areas of sunspots. Scientists compared the infrared spectrum of hot water with sunspots.
Water in sunspots causes something like a "stellar greenhouse effect" and affects the release of energy from the sunspots. Hot water molecules also absorb infrared radiation most strongly in the atmosphere of cold stars.
Sunspots and flares
Since 1610, Galileo Galilei was the first in Europe to observe the Sun using his telescope, thereby laying the foundation for regular studies of sunspots and the solar cycle, which have continued for over four centuries. 140 years later, in 1749, one of the oldest observatories in Europe, located in the Swiss city of Zurich, began making daily observations of sunspots, first by simply counting and sketching them, and later by taking photographs of the Sun. Currently, many solar stations continuously observe and record all changes on the surface of the Sun.
The most famous period of change of the Sun is the eleven-year solar cycle, during which the luminary passes through a minimum and maximum of its activity.
The solar cycle is most often determined by the number of sunspots on the photosphere, which is characterized by a special index - the Wolf number. This index is calculated as follows. First, the number of sunspot groups is counted, then this number is multiplied by 10 and the number of individual sunspots is added to it. A factor of 10 roughly corresponds to the average number of spots in one group; In this way, it is possible to fairly accurately estimate the number of sunspots even in cases where poor observing conditions do not allow direct counting of all small sunspots. Below are the results of such calculations over a huge period of time, starting in 1749. They clearly show that the number of sunspots on the Sun changes periodically, forming a cycle of solar activity with a period of about 11 years.
Currently, there are at least 2 organizations that independently of each other conduct continuous observations of the solar cycle and count the number of spots on the Sun. The first is the Sunspot Index Data Center in Belgium, where the so-called International Sunspot Number is determined. It is this number (and its standard deviation DEV) that is shown in the table already given above. In addition, the number of spots is counted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The number of sunspots determined here is called the NOAA sunspot number.
The earliest observations of sunspots at the end of the 17th century, that is, at the dawn of the era of systematic research, showed that the Sun at that time was passing through a period of extremely low activity. This period was called the Maunder Minimum, which lasted almost a century, from 1645 to 1715. Although observations of those times were not carried out as carefully and systematically as modern ones, nevertheless, the passage of the solar cycle through a very deep minimum is considered scientific world reliably established. The period of extremely low solar activity corresponds to a special climatic period in the history of the Earth, which is called the “Little Ice Age”.
Everything that happens on the Sun greatly affects our planet and people, but there are two explosive solar events that affect us the most. One of them is solar flares, where radiation waves of tens of millions of degrees suddenly burst through a small area on the surface of the Sun, which can damage telecommunications and satellites. Another type of phenomenon is a coronal mass ejection, where billions of tons of charged particles of energy are ejected from the solar corona at speeds of millions of kilometers per hour. When these massive clouds enter Earth's protective magnetosphere, they compress power lines magnetic field and unleash millions of trillions of watts of power into the upper atmosphere. This leads to overloads on power lines, resulting in blackouts and damage to all sensitive equipment and all objects in orbit around the Earth.
Often these two phenomena occur together, as was the case in October 2003. Thanks to modern measuring instruments, such an event can be detected at an early stage and allows the necessary measures to be taken.
Analysis of SOHO and Yohkoh data showed that giant loops of X-rays in hot solar corona provide important magnetic connections between sunspots and the magnetic poles of the Sun. These giant loops are approximately 500,000 miles long and are filled with 3.5 million F of hot, electrified gas. They appear in the growth phase of the 11-year sunspot cycle and are associated with the release of energy from the spots, which occurs every 1-1.5 years and causes a cyclic reversal of the magnetic poles of the Sun. It is assumed that these compounds play important role in the "solar dynamo" - a process that produces strong magnetic fields from the Sun and is the source of sunspots, solar flares and mass dumps that affect the Earth.
Spot activity increases from a minimum to a maximum for about 11 years. Those. after 22 years a new cycle begins. During this time, the entire magnetic field of the Sun changes - North Pole becomes southern and vice versa; then switch places again in the next cycle.
The sun's surface is covered in bubbles the size of Texas. Granules are parts of plasma with a short lifetime of heat transferred by convection to the surface, like water bubbles in a boiling water surface. The rise and fall of the bubbles produces sound waves that cause sounds to be emitted every 5 minutes.
The most powerful geomagnetic storm in the entire history of observations was the geomagnetic storm of 1859. A complex of events, including both the geomagnetic storm and the powerful active phenomena on the Sun that caused it, is sometimes called the “Carrington Event”, which in the literature is called the “Solar Superstorm”.
The most powerful magnetic storm observed by mankind was in August 1972. It was fast, intense and large, but the most important thing that turned it into a historical phenomenon was the polarization of its magnetic field - opposite to the Earth. When its magnetic field hits the Earth's magnetic field, the two fields combine and send a huge stream into the upper atmosphere. Electrical equipment, telegraphs, and telecommunications were disabled in large parts of Europe and America.
The proton storm was strongest in 1989. It was especially saturated with high acceleration protons, covered with 100 million electron volts of energy. Such protons can penetrate an 11 cm hole in water.
Other facts about the Sun
Only 55% of all American adults know that the Sun is a star.
Exercising in the sun increases energy and calorie expenditure.
According to the proverb, those born at dawn will be smart, but those born at sunset will be lazy.
Heliotherapy is one of the oldest and most accessible methods of treating human ailments. No wonder they say that where the sun comes, diseases go away.
According to research, the sun's rays act on specific receptors in the human retina, which sends a signal to the brain to produce more serotonin. And, as we all know, this is the hormone of happiness.
Just 15 minutes of daily sun exposure is enough to force the body to produce the required amount of vitamin E, which has vital important for our body.
Skin pigmentation protects the deeper layers of the body from exposure to ultraviolet rays.
The color of the sky depends primarily on layers of air pollution, such as smoke or dust. Normal sky color blue color due to the refraction of sunlight by atmospheric hydrogen.
Red sunsets are caused by heavy pollution in the atmosphere. When sunlight rays of layers with shorter wavelengths pass through the atmosphere and only rays with longer wavelengths pass through the atmosphere, which are red, orange and yellow rays. Large quantities dust and dirt and even stop the yellow light and only the red cross.
Red skies are especially noticeable during volcanic eruptions.
Bright sunlight is a source of excellent mood and vigor. In cloudy weather, many people feel depressed and succumb to depression. Despite this, everyone knows that the bad weather will soon end and the sun will appear in the sky. It has been familiar to people since childhood, and few people think about what this luminary represents. The most known information about the Sun is that it is a star. However, there are still many interesting facts that may be of interest to both children and adults.
What is the Sun?
Now everyone knows that the Sun is a star, and not a huge one resembling a planet. It is a cloud of gases with a core inside. The main component of this star is hydrogen, which occupies about 92% of its total volume. About 7% is helium, and the remaining percentage is divided among other elements. These include iron, oxygen, nickel, silicon, sulfur and others.
Most of the star's energy is generated by thermonuclear fusion of helium from hydrogen. Information about the Sun collected by scientists allows us to classify it as type G2V according to spectral classification. This type is called a "yellow dwarf". At the same time, the sun, contrary to popular belief, shines with white light. The yellow glow appears as a result of the scattering and absorption of the short-wave part of the spectrum of its rays by the atmosphere of our planet. Our luminary - the Sun - is an integral part of the galaxy. From its center, the star is located at a distance of 26,000 light years, and one revolution around it takes 225-250 million years.
Solar radiation
The Sun and Earth are separated by a distance of 149,600 thousand km. Despite this, solar radiation is the main source of energy on the planet. Not all of its volume passes through the Earth's atmosphere. The energy of the sun is used by plants in the processes of photosynthesis. In this way, various organic compounds are formed and oxygen is released. Solar radiation is also used to generate electricity. Even the energy of peat reserves and other minerals appeared in ancient times under the influence of the rays of this bright star. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun deserves special attention. It has antiseptic properties and can be used to disinfect water. Ultraviolet radiation also affects biological processes in the human body, causing tanning on the skin, as well as the production of vitamin D.
Life cycle of the Sun
Our luminary, the Sun, is a young star belonging to the third generation. It contains a large amount of metals, which indicates that it was formed from other stars of previous generations. According to scientists, the Sun is about 4.57 billion years old. Considering that is 10 billion years, she is now in the middle of it. At this stage, in the core of the Sun occurs thermonuclear fusion helium from hydrogen. Gradually, the amount of hydrogen will decrease, the star will become hotter, and its luminosity will be higher. Then the hydrogen reserves in the core will run out completely, part of it will go into the outer shell of the Sun, and helium will begin to become denser. The processes of star extinction will continue for billions of years, but will still lead to its transformation first into a red giant, then into a white dwarf.
Sun and Earth
Life on our planet will depend on the degree of solar radiation. In about 1 billion years, it will be so strong that the surface of the Earth will heat up significantly and become uninhabitable for most forms of life, they will be able to remain only in the depths of the oceans and in the polar latitudes. By the age of the Sun, at about 8 billion years, conditions on the planet will be close to those that currently exist on Venus. There will be no water left at all; it will all evaporate into space. This will lead to the complete disappearance of various forms of life. As the Sun's core contracts and its outer shell expands, the likelihood of our planet being absorbed by the outer layers of the star's plasma will increase. This will not happen only if the Earth revolves around the Sun at a greater distance as a result of a transition to another orbit.
A magnetic field
Information about the Sun collected by researchers indicates that it is a magnetically active star. what he creates changes its direction every 11 years. Its intensity also varies over time. All these transformations are called solar activity, which is characterized by special phenomena, such as wind and flares. They are the cause and negatively affect the operation of some devices on Earth and the well-being of people.
Solar eclipses
Information about the Sun, collected by our ancestors and surviving to this day, contains references to its eclipses since antiquity. A large number of them were also described during the Middle Ages. Solar eclipse- this is the result of the occlusion of the star by the Moon from an observer on Earth. It can be complete when the solar disk is completely hidden from at least one point on our planet, or partial. There are usually between two and five eclipses in a year. At a certain point on the Earth they arise with a time difference of 200-300 years. Those who like to look at the sky and the Sun can also see an annular eclipse. The moon covers the disk of the star, but due to its smaller diameter it cannot completely eclipse it. As a result, the “ring of fire” remains visible.
It is worth remembering that observing the Sun with the naked eye, especially through binoculars or a telescope, is very dangerous. This can lead to permanent visual impairment. The sun is relatively close to the surface of our planet and shines very brightly. Without endangering your eye health, you can only look at it during sunrises and sunsets. The rest of the time you need to use special darkening filters or project an image obtained using a telescope onto a white screen. This method is the most acceptable.
We are all accustomed to seeing a bright celestial body every day, giving us warmth and light. But does everyone know what the Sun is? How does it work and what is it?
The Sun is the closest star to Earth and occupies a central place in the solar system. It is a huge hot ball of gas (mainly hydrogen). The size of this star is so large that it could easily accommodate a million planets similar to ours.
The Sun played a decisive role in the development of life on our planet and created the conditions for the formation of other bodies in its system. Observing the Sun has always been an important activity. People have always been aware of its life-giving power and have also used it to calculate time. Interest in solar energy and its capabilities are growing every day. Solar heating using collectors is becoming increasingly popular. Considering the prices for natural gas, such a free alternative seems even more tempting.
What is the Sun? Has it always existed?
It has been shining, as scientists have found out, for many millions of years and arose along with the rest of the planets of the system from a huge cloud of dust and gas. The spherical cloud contracted and its rotation intensified, then it turned into a disk (under the influence of all the matter of the cloud, it shifted to the center of this disk, forming a ball. This is probably how the Sun was born. At first it was cold, but constant compression made it gradually hotter.
It is very difficult to imagine what the Sun really is. At the center of this massive self-luminous body, the temperature reaches 15,000,000 degrees. The emitting surface is called the photosphere. It has a granular (granular) structure. Each such “grain” represents a hot substance the size of Germany rising to the surface. Dark areas can often be observed on the surface of the Sun
