Structure Of The Sun—Different Layers Of The Sun, Sunspots, And Features

The Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old star filled with glowing gases, located at the center of our solar system. It is a celestial body of extreme brightness. The structure of the Sun is a fascinating subject of study, uncovering the interior of this giant ball of hot, glowing gas that provides our planet with light and heat. Understanding the complex structure and layers of the Sun is not only important for the field of astrophysics but also essential for understanding its importance in sustaining life on Earth. In this exploration, we’ll delve deeper into the layers and components that make up the Sun’s complex structure, shedding light on the processes that fuel its brightness and energy.

In this article we will discuss in detail the structure and composition of the Sun, important facts about the Sun, various events related to the Sun, the roles and functions of the Sun (etc.

What Is Sun?

The Sun contains 99.86% of the mass of the entire solar system. Its diameter is 1.39 million km, which is approximately 109 times the diameter of our planet Earth. The weight of the Sun is 333,000 times that of the Earth. Since the Sun is made of gases and the gases rotate at different speeds, different areas of the Sun are rotating at different speeds, making measuring a day on the Sun very complicated. The Sun rotates on its axis once every 27 days. The Sun’s equator rotates rapidly and completes one rotation in 24 days, while the poles take more than 30 days to complete one rotation. This shows that the Sun is not rotating at a constant rate like the solid Earth.

Creation Of The Sun

About 4.6 billion years ago, gravitational instability caused a giant cloud of gas and dust to collapse on itself, resulting in the formation of the Sun. In this process, the entire nebula of gas and dust was not absorbed into the Sun, but part of it settled into a disk of material orbiting it.

Structure Of The Sun

The Sun has a layered structure with a solar interior consisting of a core at the center, surrounded by a radioative zone, which is further surrounded by a convective zone, and a solar atmosphere consisting of a thin photosphere, a chromosphere, and a corona.

Different Layers Of The Sun

The Sun is made up of many different layers, each of which has its own characteristics and properties. These layers include:

• Main
• Radiation Field
• Sustainable Area
• Photosphere
• Chromosphere
• Corona
• Core

This is the region where nuclear fusion occurs and solar energy is produced. The core is about 20% the size of the Sun’s solar interior and is also the hottest region. We do not observe any change in the brightness of the Sun and the heat released by the Sun because the amount of energy produced by the Sun is constant. This is a region of very high temperature, extremely high pressure, and very dense matter of about 16 million degrees Celsius.

1. Radiation Field

The energy produced in the core is transferred to the surrounding areas by radiation; hence, it is called a radiation field. It takes about 1 million years for the energy to exit the radiation field.

2. Sustainable Area

The temperature outside the radiation region is relatively cold, making it easier for atoms outside the radiation region to absorb energy, but at the same time, they are not able to release this energy easily because the surrounding atmosphere is cold and dense. Therefore, energy is transferred not by thermal radiation but by thermal convection. The atoms absorb energy, rise above this region, and bring the energy to the surface.

3. Photosphere

Photosphere is also called “sphere of light.” It is the visible surface of the Sun (Surya in Hindi) and the lowest layer of the solar atmosphere that emits most of the Sun’s radiation. The photosphere consists of bright, bubbling particles of plasma and sunspots. It is an uneven surface with a temperature of 6000°C on its outer side. This region is the source of solar flares.

4. Chromosphere

It is approximately 3000 to 5000 kilometers deep and emits a red glow due to the burning of superheated hydrogen. The red color can only be seen during a total solar eclipse because the light emitted by the chromosphere is much weaker than the bright photosphere on other days.

5. Corona

It is made of plasma/hot ionized gas, and its density is extremely low. Because their size and shape are affected by the Sun’s magnetic field, they are constantly changing. It can only be observed with the help of special instruments on days other than a total solar eclipse because of the Sun’s surface, or photosphere.

Sunspot

Dark-appearing areas on the Sun’s photosphere, or surface, are called sunspots. Since temperatures are cooler than surrounding areas, they appear dark. The average temperature of sunspots is between 3000 and 4500 K, and that of the photosphere is 5780 K. Sunspots can be as large as 50,000 kilometers in diameter.

The dark-appearing areas of sunspots are called the “umbra,” which are surrounded by brighter areas called the “penumbra.”

The magnetic field here is 2500 times more powerful than on Earth.

Sunspots occur in pairs or groups.

The number of sunspots increases and decreases throughout the solar cycle. The latest solar cycle began in 2008 and is in the solar minimum phase, meaning the number of sunspots will be low.

Solar Wind

This plasma is a stream of (ionized atomic) particles. Solar winds blow outward from the Sun in all directions. Some particles of the solar wind enter the Earth’s upper atmosphere near the poles by penetrating its magnetic field and collide with the Earth’s atmosphere. This collision of particles causes the atmosphere to glow with colorful light, creating the aurora, which is a colorful display of light.

The Northern Hemisphere’s auroral display is called the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). The Southern Hemisphere’s auroral displays are called aurora australis (southern lights). Oxygen emits green and red light when it collides, while nitrogen emits blue and violet light.

Solar Storms

Solar flares Magnetic storms arising from sunspots due to magnetic anomalies. Clouds of ions, atoms, and electrons erupt from solar flares, and they reach Earth in about two days. Because solar flares and solar dominance contribute to space weather, they can also cause disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere, magnetic field, satellite, and telecommunications systems. Coronal mass ejections sometimes accompany solar flares.

1. Solar Cycle

The Sun’s magnetic field, caused by the movement of electrically charged hot gases inside the Sun, completely reverses or overturns every 11 years. Therefore, the north and south poles of the Sun change their places. This 11-year process is called the solar cycle of the Sun.

• Solar minimum: This is the early time of the solar cycle, when sunspots are at a minimum and solar flares may occur once a week or less.
• Solar maximum: This is the middle part of the solar cycle when sunspots are at their maximum and multiple solar flares can be seen in a day.

2. Solar Intensity

Solar insolation is a feature associated with the Sun’s surface that extends outward into the Sun’s corona. It is a composition of gas at very high temperatures. They are held on the surface of the Sun by a strong magnetic field. They are also called filaments because they appear like dark threads on the Sun’s corona because they are cooler than the corona.

Stable solar intensity in the corona can persist for several months.

When the bulges become unstable, they burst outwards, releasing plasma.

Roles And Functions Of Sun

1. The Sun provides the light and energy needed for the process of photosynthesis, which is important for maintaining the food web on Earth.
2. The Sun’s gravity is responsible for keeping everything from the largest planets to microscopic debris in their orbits.
3. The sun plays an important role in the Earth’s water cycle. The energy received from the sun is responsible for changing the state of water; it melts glaciers, thereby forming water bodies and rivers, etc. The water in these streams and water bodies is heated by the sun and helps in cloud formation.
4. The Sun causes changes in weather by heating air masses, which is an important part of weather systems. Solar heating produces wind patterns, storms, etc.
5. By using solar energy technology, the sun’s radiation can be converted into heat, light, and electricity, which is very useful for humans, being a renewable resource.

Various Characteristics Of The Sun

Various characteristics of the Sun can be classified into orbital and physical characteristics, which are explained below.

Orbital Characteristics

• Average distance from Earth 1 AU ≈ 1.496×108 km
• 8 minutes 19 seconds at the speed of light
• Absolute magnitude 83
• Angular shape 6–32.7 min arc
• Visible brightness (V) –26.74
• Metallicity angular size z=0.0122
• Spectral Classification (G) g2v

Physical Characteristics

• Diameter 864000 miles
• Equatorial radius 695,700 km,   696,342 km,  109 × earth
• Equatorial circumference 379×106 km,   109 × earth
• Mass 989 × 10^30 kg,   333,000 × earth
• Volume 41×1018 km³, 1,300,000 × earth
• Average density  408 g/cm³
• Center density 2 g/cm³
• Temperature 6000°c at the surface and 16 million °c in the core
• Composition hydrogen (73%), helium (25%)
• Surface gravity 274 m/s^2

Important Facts About The Sun

1. Rotation: When viewed from a great distance from the Earth’s North Pole, it rotates in an anti-clockwise direction.
2. No Moon: It has no moon and is orbited by 8 planets, at least 5 dwarf planets, thousands of asteroids, and about 3 trillion comets and icy bodies.
3. Sun-like stars are rare in our Milky Way galaxy, but relatively dim and cool stars called red dwarfs are commonly found.
4. The hydrogen atoms present in the center of the Sun combine to form helium, and this process is called nuclear fusion, which produces huge energy, which radiates to the surface, atmosphere, and beyond.
5. The Sun continuously emits energy in the form of visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, and plasma gas.
6. Solar flare: It is a stream of charged particles emanating from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. When these particles enter the Earth’s upper atmosphere, they are trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field and result in a phenomenon called aurora.
7. Sunspots: Dark-appearing areas on the Sun’s photosphere, or surface, are called sunspots, and the solar flare originates from here. They appear dark because they are cooler than surrounding areas. Sunspots appear and disappear every 11 years in what is called the sunspot cycle.
8. Solar intensity: The largest number of sunspots in a given solar cycle.
9. Solar minimum: The minimum number of sunspots in a given solar cycle.

Conclusion

The sun is the most important star for our solar system because it contributes to the functioning of our solar system. Since it is the main source of energy and light that supports life on Earth, it becomes very important to study the Sun in detail to understand what changes are taking place in it and what impact those changes will have on our lives.

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