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Astronomy Question Of The Week - Does The Sun Have A Surface
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Jun 17, 2009 "Of course," we might answer, "what a question!" However, we should also consider that our Sun - like all other stars - is a ball of hot gas. This gas ball, with a diameter of 1.4 million kilometres, is held together by gravity alone. This means that the Sun does not have a firm surface. Nevertheless, the Sun appears to us as a shining sphere with a sharp edge. The reason for this is that the sunlight we observe without any aids originates in a relatively thin layer. This layer, known as the photosphere, is only a few hundred kilometres thick. It therefore makes sense to talk about the visible surface of the Sun.
The various layers of the Sun's atmosphere In these radiation ranges it becomes clear how the solar magnetic field continuously changes the shape of the Sun's atmosphere: features in motion on the Sun's surface, explosions of radiation and streams of matter which speed out into space for tens of thousand of kilometres. This layer of the Sun's atmosphere, which can be observed with ultraviolet and X-ray telescopes, lies above the photosphere and is called the chromosphere. The outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, can only be seen with the naked eye during a total solar eclipse. Then, the light from the photosphere is fully masked by the Moon. The corona is a 'crown of rays' with a temperature of over a million degrees Celsius, which usually has an asymmetric form - depending on the Sun's activity. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links German Aerospace Center Solar Science News at SpaceDaily
China To Witness Longest Total Solar Eclipse In 500 YearsNanjing, China (XNA) Jun 15, 2009 China will see the longest total solar eclipse in 500 years on July 22, a scientist said Saturday. The prime time of the total eclipse was expected to begin from 9 a.m. to 9:38 a.m. (Beijing Time), said Wang Sichao, a research fellow with the Nanjing-based Purple Mountain Observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "The total eclipse will last up to six minutes, or the longest one ... read more |
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