Sun “Earths life line”
Earth’s Sun
The suns effect on the earth literally gives life to our planet. Solar Flares radiate out from the sun and sometimes hurtle towards earth.
Earths Magnetic field protects us all from these giant plasma flares.
They can cause serious damage to our satellites, powergrids and even our health. You can see the effects of solar energy on the earth by looking at the aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights.
Science has come along way in understanding the sun and its effects upon the earth and its people.
While The Earths magnetic field shields us from many particles from outerspace, it does not from gamma rays, a very deadly radiation that is emitted from dying stars, collapsing blackholes, and super giants.
The Sun is the closest star to earth, and in the fall of 2003 it unleashed a burst of energy equal to 200 billion hydrogen bombs. Blasting super heated charged particles towards earth at nearly 6 million miles per hour. This caused power outages all over the globe, and clearly indicates that the sun while providing life, can also take it away.
Skylab Mission was the first dedicated mission to study the sun. Now there are some 20 dedicated space probes watching it.
The Sun is 1 of over 200 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky way, and is 93 million miles away from earth. Its light only takes 8 mintes to reach earth. The sun is 4.5 Billion Years old of a speculated life of 11 billion years.
THe sun is 900,000 miles across and contains 99.8% of the mass of the entire solar system. It weighs 300,000 times more than the earth. At its core it is superheated to 20 million degrees, and while the sun looks solid, it is not and is gaseous in nature.
The suns atmosphere has 3 layers, with the photosphere being the innermost layer.
- The Photospere is the outer layer of the sun and is around 10,000 degrees farenheit
- Chromosphere , just above the photosphere is actually hotter then the photosphere
- The Corona is the outer atmospheric layer and is 15 Million of degrees.
The Suns equator rotates once every 25 days., mid lattitude completes a rotation in 30 days, and the solar poles complete thier rotation in about 30 days.
This process makes the inside of the sun churn at different speeds creating intense magnetism. These magnetic lines emitted from the sun get all twisted up, and pop thru the surface of the sun causing sunspots.
The sun has two seasons, solar minumum and solar maximum which takes 11 years to complete the cycle.
Sunspots are the highest during solar max, where coronal ejections are common. These can reach us in 15 minutes traveling at 1 million miles an hour.
When they reach earths magnetic field, it creates electrical currents causing radio blackouts, cell phone blackouts and causes surges of electrons on power lines,
130 million people could lose power for months. In 2011 two satellites will be at different sides of the sun that will give us a unparalled view of the sun from 2 different sides.
Solar Minimums , on the other hand can cause cooling on earth and has been linked to a mini ice age in europe.
The solar winds have decreased over the last 15 years. These winds cause what is called the heliosphere protects our planet from radiation from the solar system, like gamma rays which are one of the most deadly of rays formed by 2 stars combining, and is speculated to have caused one of the 5-6 extinctions on earth.
