Without the Sun, life on Earth could not exist. Let's get to know some interesting facts about the sun.
The sun is huge, but tiny
The star’s diameter exceeds the Earth’s 109 times, and inside it could be located 1.3 million planets the size of ours. So the sun is very large. However, there are many stars of much greater proportions. For example, if the largest star known to man were placed in the place of the Sun, it would reach Saturn.
It has always been an object of worship.
In almost every culture, the Sun was revered. He was considered the embodiment of divine powers. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Aztecs, Slavs, Greeks and Romans - all had sun gods - Ra, Apollo and others. Sunset in many religions symbolized the death of a deity, and sunrise - his resurrection in the morning, after defeating the dark forces.
The Christian Easter and the resurrection of Jesus are also part of this tradition. By the way, the halo above the heads of the saints is a symbol of the sun in ancient times.
The sun is very far from us
The distance from the Earth to the Sun varies depending on the time of the year, as the planet rotates in orbit in the form of an ellipse (oval). At the closest point, the distance to the star is 140 million kilometers. In the most remote - 151 million kilometers.
For convenience, the distance to the Sun is indicated using the measurement standard - the so-called astronomical unit (a.u.).
He has several layers
When you look at the heavenly luminary, it seems that this is just a flaming sphere.But it consists of several layers. The core of the Sun is the hottest. The temperature is 15 million degrees Celsius. Nuclear fusion in it produces energy: hydrogen becomes helium.
After the nucleus, the radiation zone begins: the energy here moves in the form of radiation.
Then comes the convection zone: the internal heat of the Sun rises to the surface in the form of gas, cools, falls back into its layers - akin to a huge pan of boiling soup. The outer shell is called the photosphere. We see it from the Earth.
Sunlight reaches Earth in 8 minutes
Light travels at a speed of 300,000 km / s. To reach the Earth, it takes 8 minutes 20 seconds (the average distance from the Sun to the Earth is 149.6 million km). Moreover, it takes millions of years to get from the core of the Sun to the photosphere.
It moves fast
The sun is located at a distance of 25,000 light years from the center of the galaxy and moves around it at a speed of 220 km / s. It takes 250 million years to make a full round.
The atmosphere around the sun is hotter than its surface
The temperature of the photosphere is 5,800 kelvins (1 kelvin = Celsius temperature + 273). At the same time, the atmosphere around the star is much hotter. The chromosphere is located above the surface of the Sun, the temperature is 100,000 Kelvin. And it's still cool. The more distant areas are called the crown; its temperature is a million kelvin.
It gives us auroras
A star emits a solar wind - charged particles traveling at a speed of 450 km / s. It leads to some inconvenience: radio interference, changes in the trajectory of spacecraft.But it is the solar wind that gives people the most beautiful phenomenon - auroras.
The sun is perfect for life on earth
The Sun has the ideal size, shape, brightness, age, temperature and distance from the Earth so that life appears on the planet. If even one of these indicators were different - even the smallest one - not a person, could not exist on other forms of life on Earth.
One day it will stop shining
It seems that the sun has always been and will be, but this is not so. It gradually heats up, luminosity increases by 10% every billion years.
After some time, the radiation of the Sun will become so powerful that water in liquid form will cease to exist on the planet. Life, as we know it, will disappear. Bacteria will survive deep in the bowels of the earth, but nothing will remain on the surface, it will become empty, dry, hot. After another 7 billion years, the star will turn into a red giant, completely absorb the Earth and other planets of the system.
The life that gave us the light itself will take it away. Fortunately, this will happen very soon.
The sun is one of the many stars of the universe, the center of the solar system. To him we owe our existence. Even ancient people understood this, making it an object of veneration. And for a modern person it is enough just to be grateful for this miracle, dangerous and beautiful.
