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Our Sun has inspired mythology in almost all cultures, including ancient Egyptians, Aztecs, Native Americans, and Chinese. Our Sun is actually the closest star to Earth. The Sun is a massive shining sphere of hot gas. The connection and interaction b...

Our Sun has inspired mythology in almost all cultu...

1. The Sun is the Solar System We live on the planet, so we think it’s an equal member of the Solar System. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that the mass of the Sun accounts for 99.8% of the mass of the Solar System. And m...

1. The Sun is the Solar System We live on the plan...

Mass: 1.98892 x 1030 kg Diameter: 1,391,000 kilometers Radius: 695,500 km Surface gravity of the Sun: 27.94 g Volume of the Sun: 1.412 x 1018 km3 Density of the Sun: 1.622 x 105 kg/m3 How Big is the Sun? The Sun is the largest object in the Solar Sys...

Mass: 1.98892 x 1030 kg Diameter: 1,391,000 kilome...

Question: What kind of star is our Sun? Answer: As you probably know, our Sun is just a star. It’s our closest, most familiar star, but it’s still just a star. With a great big Universe out there, populated with countless stars, astronomers have been...

Question: What kind of star is our Sun? Answer: As...

First, there’s no possible way that the Sun will ever explode. It might seem huge to us, but the Sun is a relatively low mass star compared to some of the enormous high mass stars out there in the Universe. When our Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel, it ...

First, there’s no possible way that the Sun will e...

All things must end. That’s true for us, that’s true for the Earth, and that’s true for the Sun. It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but one day in the far future, the Sun will run out of fuel and end its life as a main sequence star and die.In about ...

All things must end. That’s true for us, that’s tr...

The Sun (and all the planets) started their lives in a giant cloud of cold molecular gas and dust. And then about 4.6 billion years ago, something bumped into the cloud, like the gravity from a passing star, or shockwaves from a supernova, causing th...

The Sun (and all the planets) started their lives ...

In ancient times people wondered where does the Sun go at night. This question was answered in different ways. Some explained it in legends. The Greeks believed the sun was a chariot driven by the Sun God Phoebus Apollo and he rested in his palace in...

In ancient times people wondered where does the Su...

Does the Sun Move? What an interesting question. We mainly talk about everything in the solar system orbiting the Sun and celestial objects outside the solar system being in relation to the Sun. The answer to the question is : Yes. The Sun and the en...

Does the Sun Move? What an interesting question. W...

The Sun and the Moon are the two objects in the Solar System that influence Earth the most. Let’s take a look at all the different was we experience these two objects, how they’re similar, and how they’re mostly different. The Size of the Sun and the...

The Sun and the Moon are the two objects in the So...

Astronomers and astrologists have used various symbols to depict all of the planets, and many of the minor objects in the Solar System. Perhaps two of the most commonly used are the Sun and Moon symbols. The symbol for the Sun looks like circle with ...

Astronomers and astrologists have used various sym...

Space is trying to kill you. There’s no atmosphere, temperatures that would freeze you solid; it’s completely hostile to life. But one of the biggest risks to astronauts visiting the Moon might be solar storms. These are storms of protons and electro...

Space is trying to kill you. There’s no atmosphere...

When was the Sun discovered? Obviously the Sun is such an important feature in our lives, and the absolute necessity to all life on Earth. It’s kind of impossible to say when the Sun was discovered, since the first life forms on Earth probably relied...

When was the Sun discovered? Obviously the Sun is ...

Radiation from the Sun, which is more popularly known as sunlight, is a mixture of electromagnetic waves ranging from infrared (IR) to ultraviolet rays (UV). It of course includes visible light, which is in between IR and UV in the electromagnetic sp...

Radiation from the Sun, which is more popularly kn...

How does the Sun produce energy? The Sun produces energy by the nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core. What that means is that, since there is a huge amount of hydrogen in the core, these atoms stick together and fuse into a helium atom....

How does the Sun produce energy? The Sun produces ...

The Sun is the hottest place in the Solar System. The surface of the Sun is a mere 5,800 Kelvin, but down at the core of the Sun, the temperatures reach 15 million Kelvin. What’s going on, why is the Sun hot? The Sun is just a big plasma ball of hydr...

The Sun is the hottest place in the Solar System. ...

We take the Sun for granted. It’s right there in the sky, blazing with the energy that keeps our planet warm. But how does the Sun shine? What’s going on inside? As you probably know, the Sun is an enormous ball of hydrogen and helium, with a few tra...

We take the Sun for granted. It’s right there in t...

Have you ever looked up and noticed that there’s a big ring around the Sun? These rings are caused by ice crystals within thin cirrus clouds, and there several different kinds of sun rings you can see depending on the weather conditions. One of the m...

Have you ever looked up and noticed that there’s a...

Why is the sunset red? Awesome question. The most basic answer is that light is refracted by particles in the atmosphere and the red end of the spectrum is what is visible. To better understand that you have to have a basic understanding of how light...

Why is the sunset red? Awesome question. The most ...

The amount of the Sun’s energy falling at any point on the Earth depends on the angle of the Sun. This is reason why the seasons have different temperatures, and the polar regions are colder, on average than regions around the equator. Let’s take a l...

The amount of the Sun’s energy falling at any poin...

We owe everything we have to the Sun. If it weren’t for the Sun, there’d be no life on Earth. The relationship between Sun and Earth has gone back for 4.6 billion years, and should last for another 7 billion years or so. As you probably know, the Sun...

We owe everything we have to the Sun. If it weren’...