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Solar Properties
Radius = 696,000 km
(100 times Earth)
Mass = 2 x 1030 kg
(300,000 times Earth)
Av. Density = 1410 kg/m3
Rotation Period =
24.9 days (equator)
29.8 days (poles)
Surface temp = 5780 K
The Moons orbit around the
Earth would easily fit within
the Sun!
~ 4 x 1026 W
100 billion onemegaton nuclear bombs
every second!
Solar constant:
LSUN 4R2
(energy/second/area
at the radius of
Earths orbit)
Convection
Convection takes over when
the gas is too opaque for
radiative energy transport.
Hot gas is less dense and
rises (or floats, like a hot air
balloon or a beach ball in a
pool).
Cool gas is more dense and
sinks
Solar Granulation
Evidence for
Convection
Chromosphere
Chromospheric Spicules:
warm jets of matter
shooting out at ~100 km/s
last only minutes
Spicules are thought to
the result of magnetic
disturbances
H light
Transition Zone
& Corona
Very low density,
T ~ 106 K
We see emission
lines from highly
ionized elements
(Fe+5 Fe+13) which
indicates that the
temperature here is
very HOT
Why does the Temperature rise further from the hot light source?
magnetic activity -spicules and other more energetic
phenomena (more about this later)
Solar Wind
Solar Wind
Coronal gas has enough heat (kinetic) energy to escape the
Suns gravity.
The Sun is evaporating via this wind.
Solar wind travels at ~500 km/s, reaching Earth in ~3 days
The Sun loses about 1 million tons of matter each second!
However, over the Suns lifetime, it has lost only ~0.1% of
its total mass.
Coronal holes
are related to the
Suns magnetic
field
Sunspots
Sunspots
Typically about 10000 km
across
At any time, the sun may
have hundreds or none
Dark color because they
are cooler than photospheric
gas (4500K in darkest parts)
Each spot can last from a few days to a few months
Galileo observed these spots and realized the sun is rotating
differentially (faster at the poles, slower at the equator)
Sunspots &
Magnetic Fields
The twisted and tangled field lines occasionally get kinked, causing the field
strength to increase
tube of lines bursts through atmosphere creating sunspot pair
Sunspot Cycle
Solar maximum is
reached every ~11 years
Solar Prominences
Solar Prominence
Typical size is 100,000 km
May persist for days or weeks
Earth
5 hours
Particles in the flare are so energetic, the magnetic field cannot bring them
back to the Sun they escape Suns gravity
Coronal
activity
increases
with the
number of
sunspots.
Nuclear Fusion
He
The Proton-Proton
Chain:
E=mc2
(c = speed of light)
E=mc2
(c = speed of light)
Mass of 4 H Atoms =
Mass of 1 He Atom =
Difference
=
(% m converted to E)
(0.7%)
The energy output from the core of the sun is in the form of
gammy rays. These are transformed into visible and IR light by
the time they reach the surface (after interactions with particles in the Sun).