The Sun- Facts and Info

Image Credit : NASA
                                 
              The Sun is one of the most important star to us out of billions of stars. The Sun is the nearest star to our home planet “Earth”.  The Sun always rotates once every 27 days on its own axis.  The Sun at the moment is a middle-aged star, that means our Sun is at about the middle of its life.  The Sun is about four and a half billion years old. You are mistaken if you're thinking that that Sun can die soon, however Sun can keep shining for a minimum of another 5 billion years. The reason it looks so big and bright as compared with the stars in the night sky is that it is very close to the Earth. If the distance from the Sun to Earth (about 150 million km; or about 93 million miles) is scaled to about 15 m (45 ft.), the nearest star to the Sun would be located over 4,000 km (2,490 miles) away. 


           
             That means if the Sun and the Earth were located in Washington, D.C., than the nearest star to the Sun would be in California. All the stars that we see are much further away from our home planet Earth and that is why they look so small in the night sky, even if they are similar to the Sun. Like our home planet, the Sun has different layers and these layers can define its structure.  Surface structure of sun:-






             The Sun is at the center of the Solar System. The planets, asteroids and comets all revolve around the Sun. The Sun has the most important role in the solar system because it is the center of our solar system and as the center of the planetary system, it has high mass; it has 99.8% of the mass in the Solar System and due to its mass, Sun guides the movement of the other objects like planets, dwarf planets, comets and asteroids via gravitational forces. Our Sun is a very much like an active star and is always doing something very interesting. Our sun has already used up nearly half of the hydrogen present in its core. 

           The light emitted by the Sun brings energy to the rest of the Solar System and largely dictates the temperatures on the planets. Sun is the major reason why we are alive. As compared with the all the other stars in the universe, the sun has remarkable characteristics for planet Earth and life on Earth. For Earth and all the other bodies that revolve around sun, it is the most powerful center of attention due to its gravity. It holds the solar system together; pours vitalizing light, heat, and energy on Earth; and generates space weather. The surface of the Sun is known as the photosphere and its temperature is about 5800 Kelvin. Cooler surface areas of Sun are often called as Sun spots. The temperature of core of the sun is about 15 million º C. Our sun is about 1,392,000 kilometers (865,000 miles) wide and our Sun’s diameter is nearly about 110 times wider than Earth’s.  Our Sun not only emits light but also heat and a steady stream of charged particles commonly known as the solar wind. Solar wind produces the Aurora Borealis or more often known as "The Northern Lights" on Earth. A star may have various characteristics, like their motion, mass, position, chemical ingredients, size and temperature. No two stars are specifically alike. The amount of stars within the acknowledged Universe exceeds one billion.


     (If you find any error or miscalculation in this article then please feel free to share in comment and if you want to expand this article then comment below)

Comments