The SUN
Presented By: Group 4-
Edison
Claire Raip
Arc Reyes
Caira Reyes
Joan Salud
Natasha Sanchez
Phoebie Santero
Khamylle Santos
Valerry Sarmiento
The Sun is the star at the center of the
Solar System. It has a diameter of about
1,392,000 km, about 109 times that of Earth, and
its mass (about 2 × 1030 kilograms, 330,000 times
that of Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the
total mass of the Solar System. About three
quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen,
while the rest is mostly helium. Less than 2%
consists of heavier elements, including oxygen,
carbon, neon, iron, and others.
The Sun's color is white, although from the
surface of the Earth it may appear yellow
because of atmospheric scattering of blue
light. Its stellar classification, based on
spectral class, is G2V, and is informally
designated a yellow star, because its visible
radiation is most intense in the yellow-
green portion of the spectrum.
In this spectral class label, G2 indicates its
surface temperature of approximately 5778 K
(5505 °C), and V indicates that the Sun, like most stars,
is a main sequence star, and thus generates its energy
by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium. In its
core, the Sun fuses 430–600 million tons of hydrogen
each second. Once regarded by astronomers as a small
and relatively insignificant star, the Sun is now thought
to be brighter than about 85% of the stars in the
Milky Way galaxy, most of which are red dwarfs.
The absolute magnitude of the Sun is +4.83; however,
as the star closest to Earth, the Sun is the brightest
object in the sky with an apparent magnitude of
−26.74. The Sun's hot corona continuously expands in
space creating the solar wind, a stream of charged
particles that extends to the helio pause at roughly
100 astronomical units. The bubble in the
interstellar medium formed by the solar wind, the
heliosphere, is the largest continuous structure in the
Solar System.
The Sun is currently traveling through the
Local Interstellar Cloud in the Local Bubble
zone, within the inner rim of the Orion Arm
of the Milky Way galaxy. Of the 50
nearest stellar systems within 17 light-years
from Earth (the closest being a red dwarf
named Proxima Centauri at approximately
4.2 light years away), the Sun ranks 4th in
mass.
The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way at a
distance of approximately 24,000–26,000light years
from the galactic center, completing
one clockwise orbit, as viewed from the
galactic north pole, in about 225–250 million years.
Since our galaxy is moving with respect to the
cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) in the
direction of constellation Hydra with a speed of
550 km/s, the sun's resultant velocity with respect to the
CMB is about 370 km/s in the direction of Crater or Leo
.
The mean distance of the Sun from the
Earth is approximately 149.6 million
kilometers (1 AU), though the distance
varies as the Earth moves from perihelion
in January to aphelion in July. At this
average distance, light travels from the
Sun to Earth in about 8 minutes and 19
seconds. The energy of this sunlight
supports almost all life on Earth by
photosynthesis, and drives Earth's climate
and weather.
Theenormous effect of the Sun on the Earth
has been recognized since prehistoric times,
and the Sun has been regarded by some
cultures as a deity. An accurate scientific
understanding of the Sun developed slowly,
and as recently as the 19th century
prominent scientists had little knowledge of
the Sun's physical composition and source of
energy. This understanding is still
developing; there are a number of
present-day anomalies in the Sun's behavior
that remain unexplained.
Characteristi
cs
The Sun is a G-type main sequence star comprising about
99.8632% of the total mass of the Solar System. It is a near-
perfect sphere, with an oblateness estimated at about 9
millionths, which means that its polar diameter differs from its
equatorial diameter by only 10 km. As the Sun consists of a
plasma and is not solid, it rotates faster at its equator than at its
poles. This behavior is known as differential rotation, and is
caused by convection in the Sun and the movement of mass, due
to steep temperature gradients from the core outwards. This
mass carries a portion of the Sun’s counter-clockwise
angular momentum, as viewed from the ecliptic north pole, thus
redistributing the angular velocity.
The period of this actual rotation is
approximately 25.6 days at the equator and
33.5 days at the poles. However, due to our
constantly changing vantage point from the
Earth as it orbits the Sun, the apparent
rotation of the star at its equator is about 28
days. The centrifugal effect of this slow
rotation is 18 million times weaker than the
surface gravity at the Sun's equator. The tidal
effect of the planets is even weaker, and does
not significantly affect the shape of the Sun.
The Sun is a Population I, or heavy element-
rich, star. The formation of the Sun may have been
triggered by shockwaves from one or more nearby
supernovae. This is suggested by a high abundance of
heavy elements in the Solar System, such as gold and
uranium, relative to the abundances of these elements
in so-called Population II (heavy element-poor) stars.
These elements could most plausibly have been
produced by endergonic nuclear reactions during a
supernova, or by transmutation through
neutron absorption inside a massive second-
generation star.
Core
The core of the Sun is considered to extend from the center to
about 0.2 to 0.25 of the solar radius. It has a density of up
to 150 g/cm3 about 150 times the density of water) and a
temperature of close to 13.6 million Kelvin (K). By contrast, the
Sun's surface temperature is approximately 5,800 K. Recent
analysis of SOHO mission data favors a faster rotation rate in
the core than in the rest of the radiative zone. Through most of
the Sun's life, energy is produced by nuclear fusion through a
series of steps called the p–p (proton–proton) chain; this process
converts hydrogen into helium. Less than 2% of the helium
generated in the Sun comes from the CNO cycle.
The core is the only region in the Sun that produces
an appreciable amount of thermal energy through
fusion; inside 24% of the Sun's radius, 99% of the
power has been generated, and by 30% of the radius,
fusion has stopped nearly entirely. The rest of the star
is heated by energy that is transferred outward from
the core and the layers just outside. The energy
produced by fusion in the core must then travel
through many successive layers to the solar
photosphere before it escapes into space as sunlight
or kinetic energy of particles.
Radiative zone
From about 0.25 to about 0.7 solar radii, solar material is hot and
dense enough that thermal radiation is sufficient to transfer the
intense heat of the core outward. This zone is free of thermal
convection; while the material gets cooler from 7 to about 2
million Kelvin with increasing altitude, this temperature gradient
is less than the value of the adiabatic lapse rate and hence cannot
drive convection. Energy is transferred by radiation—ions of
hydrogen and helium emit photons, which travel only a brief
distance before being reabsorbed by other ions. The density
drops a hundredfold (from 20 g/cm3 to only 0.2 g/cm3) from the
bottom to the top of the radiative zone.
The radiative zone and the convection form a transition layer,
the tachocline. This is a region where the sharp regime change
between the uniform rotation of the radiative zone and the
differential rotation of the convection zone results in a large
shear—a condition where successive horizontal layers slide
past one another. The fluid motions found in the convection
zone above, slowly disappear from the top of this layer to its
bottom, matching the calm characteristics of the radiative
zone on the bottom. Presently, it is hypothesized (see
Solar dynamo), that a magnetic dynamo within this layer
generates the Sun's magnetic field.
Convective Zone
In the Sun's outer layer, from its surface down to approximately
200,000 km (or 70% of the solar radius), the solar plasma is not
dense enough or hot enough to transfer the thermal energy of the
interior outward through radiation; in other words it is opaque
enough. As a result, thermal convection occurs as
thermal columns carry hot material to the surface (photosphere)
of the Sun. Once the material cools off at the surface, it plunges
downward to the base of the convection zone, to receive more heat
from the top of the radiative zone. At the visible surface of the
Sun, the temperature has dropped to 5,700 K and the density to
only 0.2 g/m3 (about 1/6,000th the density of air at sea level).
The thermal columns in the convection zone form an
imprint on the surface of the Sun as the
solar granulation and supergranulation. The
turbulent convection of this outer part of the solar
interior causes a "small-scale" dynamo that produces
magnetic north and south poles all over the surface of
the Sun. The Sun's thermal columns are Bénard cells
and therefore tend to be hexagonal prisms.
Photosphere
The visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere, is the layer
below which the Sun becomes opaque to visible
light. Above the photosphere visible sunlight is free to
propagate into space, and its energy escapes the Sun
entirely. The change in opacity is due to the decreasing
amount of H− ions, which absorb visible light
easily. Conversely, the visible light we see is produced as
electrons react with hydrogen atoms to produce
H− ions. The photosphere is tens to hundreds of kilometers
thick, being slightly less opaque than air on Earth.
Because the upper part of the photosphere is cooler than the
lower part, an image of the Sun appears brighter in the
center than on the edge or limb of the solar disk, in a
phenomenon known as limb darkening. Sunlight has
approximately a black-body spectrum that indicates its
temperature is about 6,000 K, interspersed with atomic
absorption lines from the tenuous layers above the
photosphere. The photosphere has a particle density of
~1023 m−3 (this is about 0.37% of the particle number per
volume of Earth's atmosphere at sea level; however,
photosphere particles are electrons and protons, so the
average particle in air is 58 times as heavy).
During early studies of the optical spectrum
of the photosphere, some absorption lines
were found that did not correspond to any
chemical elements then known on Earth. In
1868, Norman Lockyer hypothesized that
these absorption lines were because of a new
element which he dubbed helium, after the
Greek Sun god Helios. It was not until 25
years later that helium was isolated on Earth.
Atmosphere
The parts of the Sun above the photosphere are referred to
collectively as the solar atmosphere. They can be viewed with
telescopes operating across the electromagnetic spectrum, from
radio through visible light to gamma rays, and comprise five
principal zones: the temperature minimum, the chromosphere, the
transition region, the corona, and the heliosphere. The heliosphere,
which may be considered the tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun,
extends outward past the orbit of Pluto to the heliopause, where it
forms a sharp shock front boundary with the interstellar medium.
The chromosphere, transition region, and corona are much hotter
than the surface of the Sun. The reason has not been conclusively
proven; evidence suggests that Alfvén waves may have enough
energy to heat the corona.
The coolest layer of the Sun is a temperature minimum region
about 500 km above the photosphere, with a temperature of
about 4,100 K. This part of the Sun is cool enough to support simple
molecules such as carbon monoxide and water, which can be detected
by their absorption spectra.
Above the temperature minimum layer is a layer about 2,000 km thick,
dominated by a spectrum of emission and absorption lines. It is called
the chromosphere from the Greek root chroma, meaning color, because
the chromosphere is visible as a colored flash at the beginning and end
of total eclipses of the Sun. The temperature in the chromosphere
increases gradually with altitude, ranging up to around 20,000 K near
the top. In the upper part of chromosphere helium becomes partially
ionized.
Magnetic
Field
The Sun is a magnetically active star. It supports a strong, changing
magnetic field that varies year-to-year and reverses direction about every eleven
years around solar maximum. The Sun's magnetic field leads to many effects
that are collectively called solar activity, including sunspots on the surface of the
Sun, solar flares, and variations in solar wind that carry material through the
Solar System. Effects of solar activity on Earth include auroras at moderate to
high latitudes, and the disruption of radio communications and electric power.
Solar activity is thought to have played a large role in the
formation and evolution of the Solar System. Solar activity changes the
structure of Earth's outer atmosphere.
All matter in the Sun is in the form of gas and plasma because of its high
temperatures. This makes it possible for the Sun to rotate faster at its equator
(about 25 days) than it does at higher latitudes (about 35 days near its poles).
The differentialrotation of the Sun's latitudes
causes its magnetic field lines to become twisted
together over time, causing magnetic field loops
to erupt from the Sun's surface and trigger the
formation of the Sun's dramatic sunspots and
solar prominences (see magnetic reconnection).
This twisting action creates the solar dynamo
and an 11-year solar cycle of magnetic activity
as the Sun's magnetic field reverses itself about
every 11 years.
Chemical
Composition
The Sun is composed primarily of the chemical elements hydrogen and helium; they
account for 74.9% and 23.8% of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere, respectively. All
heavier elements, called metals in astronomy, account for less than 2 percent of the mass.
The most abundant metals are oxygen (roughly 1% of the Sun's mass), carbon (0.3%),
neon (0.2%), and iron (0.2%).
The Sun inherited its chemical composition from the interstellar medium out of which it
formed: the hydrogen and helium in the Sun were produced by Big Bang nucleosynthesis
. The metals were produced by stellar nucleosynthesis in generations of stars which
completed their stellar evolution and returned their material to the interstellar medium
before the formation of the [Link] chemical composition of the photosphere is
normally considered representative of the composition of the primordial Solar
System. However, since the Sun formed, the helium and heavy elements have settled out
of the photosphere. Therefore, the photosphere now contains slightly less helium and
only 84% of the heavy elements than the protostellar Sun did; the protostellar Sun was
71.1% hydrogen, 27.4% helium, and 1.5% metals.
In the inner portions of the Sun, nuclear fusion has modified the
composition by converting hydrogen into helium, so the innermost
portion of the Sun is now roughly 60% helium, with the metal
abundance unchanged. Because the interior of the Sun is radiative,
not convective (see Structure above), none of the fusion products
from the core have risen to the photosphere.
The solar heavy-element abundances described above are typically
measured both using spectroscopy of the Sun's photosphere and by
measuring abundances in meteorites that have never been heated to
melting temperatures. These meteorites are thought to retain the
composition of the protostellar Sun and thus not affected by settling
of heavy elements. The two methods generally agree well.
Singly ionized iron Group
Elements
In the 1970s, much research focused on the abundances of
iron group elements in the Sun. Although significant
research was done, the abundance determination of some
iron group elements (e.g., cobalt and manganese) was still
difficult at least as far as 1978 because of their hyperfine
structures.
The first largely complete set of oscillator strengths of singly
ionized iron group elements were made available first in the
1960s, and improved oscillator strengths were computed in
1976. In 1978 the abundances of singly ionized elements of
the iron group were derived.
Solar and Planetary mass
fraction relationship
Various authors have considered the existence of a
mass fractionation relationship between the isotopic
compositions of solar and planetary noble gases, for
example correlations between isotopic compositions of
planetary and solar neon and xenon. Nevertheless, the
belief that the whole Sun has the same composition as
the solar atmosphere was still widespread, at least
until 1983.
In 1983, it was claimed that it was the fractionation in
the Sun itself that caused the fractionation
relationship between the isotopic compositions of
planetary and solar wind implanted noble gases.
Cycles
Sunspot and the sunspot
cycles
When observing the Sun with appropriate filtration, the most
immediately visible features are usually its sunspots, which are well-
defined surface areas that appear darker than their surroundings
because of lower temperatures. Sunspots are regions of intense
magnetic activity where convection is inhibited by strong magnetic
fields, reducing energy transport from the hot interior to the
surface. The magnetic field causes strong heating in the corona,
forming active regions that are the source of intense solar flares
and coronal mass ejections. The largest sunspots can be tens of
thousands of kilometers across.
The number of sunspots visible on the Sun is not
constant, but varies over an 11-year cycle known as
the solar cycle. At a typical solar minimum, few
sunspots are visible, and occasionally none at all can
be seen. Those that do appear are at high solar
latitudes. As the sunspot cycle progresses, the
number of sunspots increases and they move closer
to the equator of the Sun, a phenomenon described
by Spörer's law. Sunspots usually exist as pairs with
opposite magnetic polarity. The magnetic polarity
of the leading sunspot alternates every solar cycle,
so that it will be a north magnetic pole in one solar
cycle and a south magnetic pole in the next
Sunspot and the sunspot
cycles
A recent theory claims that there are
magnetic instabilities in the core of the
Sun that cause fluctuations with periods
of either 41,000 or 100,000 years. These
could provide a better explanation of
the ice ages than the Milankovitch cycles
.
Life Cycle
The Sun was formed about 4.57 billion years ago when a hydrogen
molecular cloud collapsed. Solar formation is dated in two ways:
the Sun's current main sequence age, determined using
computer models of stellar evolution and nucleocosmochronology,
is thought to be about 4.57 billion years. This is in close accord with
the radiometric date of the oldest Solar System material, at 4.567
billion years ago.
The Sun is about halfway through its main-sequence evolution,
during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into
helium. Each second, more than four million metric tons of matter
are converted into energy within the Sun's core, producing
neutrinos and solar radiation. At this rate, the Sun has so far
converted around 100 Earth-masses of matter into energy. The Sun
will spend a total of approximately 10 billion years as a main
sequence star.
The Sun does not have enough mass to explode as a
supernova. Instead, in about 5 billion years, it will
enter a red giant phase, its outer layers expanding as
the hydrogen fuel in the core is consumed and the
core contracts and heats up. Helium fusion will begin
when the core temperature reaches around 100
million K and will produce carbon, entering the
asymptotic giant branch phase.
Life-cycle of the Sun; sizes are not drawn to scale.
Earth's fate is precarious. As a red giant, the Sun will
have a maximum radius beyond the Earth's current
orbit, 1 AU (1.5×1011 m), 250 times the present radius
of the Sun. However, by the time it is an asymptotic
giant branch star, the Sun will have lost roughly 30%
of its present mass due to a stellar wind, so the orbits
of the planets will move outward. If it were only for
Sun Light
Sunlight is Earth's primary source of energy. The
solar constant is the amount of power that the Sun
deposits per unit area that is directly exposed to
sunlight. The solar constant is equal to
approximately 1,368 W/m2 (watts per square meter)
at a distance of one astronomical unit (AU) from the
Sun (that is, on or near Earth). Sunlight on the
surface of Earth is attenuated by the Earth's
atmosphere so that less power arrives at the surface
—closer to 1,000 W/m2 in clear conditions when the
Sun is near the zenith.
Solar energy can be harnessed by a variety of natural
and synthetic processes—photosynthesis by plants
captures the energy of sunlight and converts it to
chemical form (oxygen and reduced carbon
compounds), while direct heating or electrical
conversion by solar cells are used by solar power
equipment to generate electricity or to do other
useful work, sometimes employing
concentrating solar power (that it is measured in
suns). The energy stored in petroleum and other fossil
fuels was originally converted from sunlight by
photosynthesis in the distant past.
Importance of the SUN
Without the sun the planets (including earth) would have nothing to orbit.
We would then fly off into the coldest parts of space - temperatures would
be so low that nothing would be able to live on the earth (more on life in
second). Theory suggests that it was the suns gravitational force that
pulled together debris flying through the cosmos and formed the planets
to begin with...i.e. if the sun never existed nor would Earth.
The heat from the sun hits the Earth and is then trapped (greenhouse
effect). This allows the temperature on Earth to be higher than that of the
space surrounding it (ie space). The temperature on Earth is right to
sustain life (obviously). Without the sun the temperature would plummet
too low to continue supporting life.
If there was no sun then Photosynthesis could not happen. Without
Photosynthesis plants would die...Plants make oxygen (through
photosynthesis)...so without plants life as we know it would end on Earth.
We are the EDISON!
THANK YOU for
LISTENING!!
Quiz
1.) It is the star at the center of the Solar System?
2.) It is considered to extend from the center to about 0.2 to 0.25 of the solar
radius?
3.) It is about 0.25 to about 0.7 solar radii, solar material is hot and dense
enough that thermal radiation is sufficient to transfer the intense heat of the
core outward.
4.) It is the layer below which the Sun becomes opaque to visible light?
5.) The parts of the Sun above the photosphere are referred to collectively
as the solar atmosphere.
6.) It leads to many effects that are collectively called solar activity,
including sunspots on the surface of the Sun, solar flares, and variations
in solar wind that carry material through the Solar System.
7.) It is Earth's primary source of energy.
8-10.) Why do you think that sun is important?
ANSWERS IN QUIZ
1. Sun
2. Core
3. Radiative Zone
4. Photosphere
5. Atmosphere
6. Magnetic Field
7. Sunlight
8-10. Without the sun the planets (including earth) would
have nothing to orbit. We would then fly off into the
coldest parts of space - temperatures would be so low that
nothing would be able to live on the earth (more on life in
second).
