All of us are accustomed daily to observe a bright heavenly body, giving us warmth and light. But does everyone know what the sun is? How is it arranged and what is it like?
The Sun is the star closest to the Earth; it occupies a central place in the Solar System. It is an enormous size hot gas ball (mainly from hydrogen). The dimensions of this star are so large that it could easily accommodate a million planets like ours.
The sun played a decisive role in the development of life on our planet and created the conditions for the formation of other bodies of its system. Observing the Sun at all times has been an important activity. People were always aware of its life-giving power, and used it also for calculating time. Interest in solar energy and its capabilities is growing every day. Solar heating with collectors is becoming more popular. Given the price of natural gas, such a free alternative seems even more attractive.
What is the sun? Has it always existed?
It shines, as scientists have learned, for many millions of years and arose together with the rest of the planets of the system from a huge cloud of dust and gas. The spherical cloud was compressed and its rotation intensified, then it turned into a disk (under the influence of centrifugal forces). All the substance of the cloud has shifted to the center of this disk, forming a ball. So, probably, the Sun was born. At first it was cold, but constant compression made it gradually hotter.
It is very difficult to imagine what the Sun really is. In the center of this massive self-luminous body, the temperature reaches 15000000 degrees. The radiating surface is called the photosphere. It has a granular (granular) structure. Each such “grain” represents a hot substance rising to the surface the size of Germany. Often, dark areas (sunspots) can be observed on the surface of the Sun.
Thermonuclear reactions in the sun release an unimaginable amount of energy that is radiated into space in the form of light and heat. To everything else, the incredible solar wind (particle stream) rushes from here.
Without the Sun, there would be no life on our planet. But together with heat and light, it emits other types of energy, for example, X-rays and ultraviolet rays, which pose a threat to all life. The ozone layer protects us, not letting in most of the dangerous rays, but still some of them pass, as evidenced by the tan on our skin.
The most powerful manifestation of the activity of the sun is a flash. In fact, this is an explosion caused by a plasma substance under the influence of a magnetic field. Although flares have not yet been studied in detail, their occurrence is definitely of an electromagnetic nature.
Even preschoolers know what the sun is. But few people even think about the large-scale processes that occur on this fireball every second. The sun will not be like this forever. Its fuel supply is approximately 10 billion years old. To find out how much longer it will warm us and shine for us, it is necessary to clarify what part of their life they have already lived. Moonstones and meteorites are no more than 5 billion years old, which means that the age of the Sun is the same.
It used to be thought that it would just slowly fade away and cool down. Now we have found out that this process will not be calm and quiet, a "dying" star is waiting for a real dying agony. When the core finally burns out, the fire will begin to devour the outer solar layers. The sun will turn into a massive red star, which will absorb Venus and Mercury and heat the Earth to incredible temperatures. Water will evaporate, life will cease to exist. Then a new energy source will arise in the outer layers of the Sun - from helium. The shell will fall, the core will shrink to a white dwarf state.
