Introduction
What is that flaming ball of plasma in the sky that we see every day in the daytime? What is the object that keeps the planets in orbit around it? What is so massive that it makes up 99.86% of our solar system’s mass? Well, we’re talking about the Sun!
Overview
The Sun is a medium-sized star and is classified as a yellow dwarf star, though it is not really yellow. In fact, the Sun is actually white! The Sun only appears yellow in the sky because of how our atmosphere catches and absorbs light. The Sun is also the provider of energy for all living organisms on Earth. As you may already know, plants and some microorganisms need energy from the Sun to survive and they make up the bottom of the food chain for all other life to survive. Without the Sun, not only would there be no life on Earth, but there also would be no heat, light, or even a strong enough gravitational field to keep Earth orbiting.
Cool Facts
One cool fact about the Sun is that the Sun actually rotates! I bet you didn't know that before! However, what is even crazier is that the Sun is not solid but is rather made of plasma and so it spins at different rates depending on what location on the Sun you are talking about! The Sun completes one full rotation in 25 Earth days along its equator and 36 Earth days along its poles. Crazy right?
Another cool fact about the Sun is that it has a dynamic atmosphere that is even above the photosphere that we all see. The photosphere is just the surface of the Sun although it is not solid! The layers above the photosphere are known as the corona and the chromosphere, where giant explosions of energy and particles occur. These explosions of energy and particles may even reach the Earth!
Cultural Background
Did you know that the Sun has been seen in fascination by many cultures in the world even since Ancient times? The ancient Egyptians and the Aztecs have even been religious with regard to the Sun as they would create gods to worship based on the Sun. Huītzilōpōchtli is the Aztec Sun god and war god, even being one of the main deities that the Aztecs worship! The Aztecs believed that their Sun god was the one who guided them from their original home to the Valley of Mexico. This is just one example of the many cultures that made gods based on the Sun!
Crazy Numbers
Here are some crazy number facts regarding the Sun:
Hydrogen makes up around 75% of the Sun’s mass, while Helium almost takes up the remaining 25%. Only around 1.7% of the Sun’s mass is made up of other elements like iron, nickel, oxygen, and many more.
The Sun is around 100 times wider than the Earth and around 1,000,000 times as large!
The temperature at the Sun’s core is around 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, while the temperature at the Sun’s surface is still around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Even though the Sun is around 93,000,000 miles away from Earth, we still receive plenty of energy and light from the Sun!
The Sun we see is actually 7 minutes old! This is because it takes light around 7 minutes to get from the Sun to Earth.
In The Grand Scheme of Things
The Sun is just a small part and one of around 100 billion to 400 billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy! In addition, our galaxy is just one of 200 billion to 2 trillion galaxies in our observable universe! Not only that, but the Sun formed just 4.6 billion years ago, which is 9.2 billion years after the Big Bang! Finally, we´ll end off with a cool fact that might just blow your mind! Not only is the moon revolving around the Earth, the Earth around the Sun, but the Sun is also revolving around the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy every 225 million years!!
Conclusion
That’s it for today’s article! Thanks for reading and good luck on your astronomical journey!
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