The Sun, The Seasons, and Solar Energy
Facts about the Sun
- Largest object in our solar system
- 109 Earths would be required to fit across the Sun's diameter
- Its interior could hold over 1.3 million earths
- Its mass is more than 300,000 times that of Earth
- The Sun's outer visible layer is called the photosphere and has a temperature of 6,000°C
- It is 93,000,000 miles from Earth
- Solar energy is created deep within the core of the Sun
- The temperature of the core is 15,000,000°C
- The pressure is 340 billion times Earth's air pressure at lea level
- Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun. Hydrogen is turned into helium
- Energy generated in the Sun's core takes a million years to reach its surface
- Every second 700 million tons of hydrogen are converted into helium
- In the process, 5 million tons of pure energy is released; therefore, as time goes on the Sun is becoming lighter
- The Sun is approximately 4.6 billion years old.
- It has enough fuel to go on for another five billion years or so. At the end of its life, the Sun will start to fuse helium into heavier elements and begin to swell up, ultimately growing so large that it will swallow the Earth.
Principal Chemistry Percent Hydrogen 92.1% Helium 7.8% Oxygen 0.061% Carbon 0.030% Nitrogen 0.0084% Neon 0.0076% Iron 0.0037% Silicon 0.0031% Magnesium 0.0024% Sulfur 0.0015% All Others 0.0015%