The size and mass of the Sun

The sun warms and illuminates our planet. Life on it would be impossible without the energy of the luminary. This applies to man, and to the whole terrestrial flora and fauna. The sun energizes all processes occurring on Earth. The Earth receives from the Sun not only light and heat. The life of our planet is continuously influenced by particle flows and various types of solar radiation.

The influence of the sun has a great impact on human health. Magnetic storms in many people cause a deterioration in well-being.

In this article, we will consider general information about the Sun, namely composition, temperature and mass of the Sun, influence on the Earth, etc.

general information

The sun is the star nearest to us. Investigations of the Sun give information about the conditions of reactions occurring in its interior and surface, allow us to understand the physical nature of stellar bodies, which we see as dimensionless glittering points. The study of the processes taking place in the vicinity and on the surface of the Sun helps to understand phenomena typical of near-Earth space.

The sun is the center of our planetary system, which also includes 8 planets, dozens of satellites of planets, thousands of asteroids, meteoric bodies, comets, interplanetary gas, dust. In the entire solar system, the mass of the Sun occupies 99.866% of the total mass. By astronomical standards, the distance from the Sun to the Earth is small: light is only 8 minutes.

The size of the Sun requires special attention. This is huge not only in size but also in volume star. Its diameter exceeds the diameter of the Earth by a factor of 109, volume, in turn, by 1.3 million times.

The approximate temperature of the surface of the sun is 5800 degrees, so it shines with almost white light, but because of the strong absorption and dispersion of the short-wave portion of the spectrum by the atmosphere of the Earth, direct sunlight near the surface of our planet gets a yellow shade.

The temperature in the central zone of the Sun reaches 15 million degrees. Because of the rather high temperature, the substance of the Sun is in the gaseous state, and in the interior of the giant star the atoms of chemical elements are divided into freely moving electrons and atomic nuclei.

The mass of the sun is 1.989 * 10 ^ 30 Kg. This figure exceeds the mass of the globe by 333 thousand times. The average density of matter is 1.4 g / cm3. The average density of the Earth is almost 4 times higher. In addition, in astronomy there is the concept of the mass of the sun - a unit of mass measurement, which is used to express the mass of stars and other objects of astronomy (galaxies).

The gaseous solar mass is held by a common attraction to its center. The upper layers with their weight compress deeper, and with increasing depth of bedding the pressure increases.

The pressure in the bowels of the Sun reaches a value of hundreds of billions of atmospheres, so the substance in the solar depths has a high density.

This leads to the passage of thermonuclear reactions in the interior of the Sun, as a result of which hydrogen turns into helium and releases nuclear energy. Gradually, this energy "seeps" through the opaque solar matter first into the outer layers, and then radiates into the world space.

The composition of the Sun includes elements such as hydrogen (73%), helium (25%) and other elements in a much lower concentration (nickel, nitrogen, sulfur, carbon, calcium, iron, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, neon, chromium).