Next comes the solar corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere, which extends far into space. Astronomers are unsure exactly what causes this-they think it is to do with the Sun’s magnetic field. This is a thin reddish layer that can be briefly glimpsed when the Moon covers the photosphere during a total solar eclipse.Ībove this is a thin transition region where the temperature increases dramatically.
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The Sun’s photosphere is surrounded by the chromosphere. This lies about 700,000 kilometers (430,000 miles) from the center of the Sun, which is roughly twice the distance from Earth to the Moon. The visible surface of the Sun is called the photosphere. At the Sun’s equator, a sidereal day is around 25 Earth days near the poles, it is close to 35 Earth days. Because the Sun is not a solid body, different parts of it rotate at different speeds. However, a sidereal day measures one rotation with respect to the fixed stars. This concept is meaningless to the Sun itself. This photo was taken from the International Space Station in May 2020.Ī solar day is defined as one rotation of a body with respect to the Sun. Sunspots are visible using a projector.įrom above Earth’s atmosphere, the Sun is white. They are most frequent at solar maximum and least frequent at solar minimum. The number of sunspots fluctuates over around 11 years. One of the most interesting times to observe the Sun is when it has sunspots-cool, dark areas on its surface produced by magnetic fields. The time and direction of sunrise and sunset depends on your location, and the time of year. Sunrise and sunset, when the Sun can turn a deep orange or red color, are among the best times for seeing the Sun and taking pictures. Protect your eyes when looking at the Sun Warning: Never look at the Sun with the naked eye-it can cause permanent eye damage. Our Sun is around 4.6 billion years old, and therefore about halfway along the main sequence.Ĭompare the sizes and order of the Sun and the planetsįind sunrise and sunset times for your location Astronomers call this the main-sequence stage of a star’s life. G-type stars spend about 10 billion years converting hydrogen to helium. Its color is white, although it tends to appear yellow or red when seen through the filter of Earth’s atmosphere. From hot to cool-and from blue to red-the seven main spectral classes are O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. Stars are usually classified by their surface temperature, which also gives a rough indication of the star’s color. This energy reaches Earth in the form of solar radiation (sunlight).
Sun corona helium series#
This is done in a series of nuclear fusion reactions that produce large amounts of energy. In its core, it converts hydrogen into helium. The Sun is a star at the center of our solar system. ©/claudiodivizia A Brief Overview of the Sun Small, dark sunspots can be seen in this image of the Sun’s disk.
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Trace around the Moon with white chalk – make sure to go around more than once to get a thick traced out circle on the paper.Place the Moon cutout (or circular object) at the center of the piece of construction paper.A laminated cutout of the Moon (or a traceable circular object like a CD).Once the moon completely blocks out the bright photosphere of the Sun, only then can you see the majestic corona with the naked eye, but only for a couple of minutes. Why? The Sun’s photosphere is much brighter than the corona and continuously outshines it. As it turns out, the only time you can see it is during totality of a total solar eclipse. The Sun’s corona happens to be one of the most elusive objects in our solar system. the outer atmosphere – which we call the corona (“corona” is a Latin word meaning “crown”).the outermost surface layer being the photosphere (the part we can see with our safe solar viewing glasses).the innermost being the core (where hydrogen atoms fuse together to create helium, otherwise known as nuclear fusion).What do we know? The Sun is made up of different layers: This activity has been designed as a great way to get younger children (ages 3 – 10) actively involved with the upcoming total solar eclipse!Ī little bit of background first… as it turns out we don’t know everything about our own star in this quiet corner of the Milky Way galaxy – the Sun.
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The upcoming total solar eclipse on August 21 st is a great opportunity to get even the youngest of your kids to enjoy a great learning experience. As we all might imagine, astronomy isn’t meant to be learned exclusively inside a classroom.