From the astronomical size of the sun, to its deadly and destructive solar flares we countdown the Top 10 most Interesting Facts about the Sun.
10. The basics
The sun is over 4.7 billion years old and is responsible for the Earth’s climate and weather. With a surface temperature of 5500 degrees Celsius, the almost perfect sphere holds incredibly destructive capabilities.
9. Gravity
The gravity on the sun is 28 times more than on earth. So, someone weighing 150 pounds would weigh 4,200 on the sun.
8. Size
Earth is huge, but the sun is bigger. Around 11,990 times bigger. Yep, scientists have discovered that around 960,000 earths would fit inside the suns interior. That’s pretty difficult to comprehend. But here’s something else. In the far away future, anywhere in-between 130 million years to 5 billion, the sun would have burned all the hydrogen and helium, at which point in would grow to consume Earth, Venus and Mercury. After this “red giant” phase it will then begin the process of collapsing on itself, retaining its enormous volume but being reduced to the size of our once beautiful earth. This is to be called ‘white dwarf’.
7. Solar Eclipse
The natural event that is the solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes in between the Earth the sun. Due to the location of the moon this only occurs five times a year, and if it was a little closer it would actually occur once a month.
6. Idolised
We have come to realise the importance of the sun on the Earth. However, through human history it has been seen that many cultures worshipped the sun as a God. The ancient Aztecs, Egyptians and much more all have a solar deity. Although they did realise the importance of the sun, as the sunlight gave their crops the ability to grow for example, they didn’t fully understand it. Nowadays we understand the sun is just another part of the galaxy, and although instrumental to our survival, is not a god or higher power.
5. Speed
The sun travels about 220 kilometres per second, and after 225-250 million years it completes a full orbit around the centre of the Milky Way.
4. One of 100 Billion
The sun is actually a star. The reason why it’s so prevalent in our solar system is because it’s the closest. Every single one of those tiny dots in the sky are like our sun, they can be smaller or even larger. Actually, our sun is only classed as a ‘medium’ sized star so you can imagine the billions of stars that trump over ours.
3. Orbits
The sun is orbited by nine main planets, all of which I will talk more about in future episodes. These are Venus, Earth, Mercury, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Pluto which isn’t a planet now but still.
2. Solar Flares
Every 11 years it has been estimated that sun spots, or solar flares, occur. What causes this is mainly electrons colliding with other particles within the sun. A sudden flash of brightness can be observed from earth, where the equivalent of 160 billion megatons of TNT is expelled into space, carryings clouds of electrons, atoms and ions. These usually reach earth in the matter of a day or two, and can cause major interruptions with technology and implement a geomagnetic storm which affects the magnetosphere and can knock out satellites.
1. Distance
The sun is 150 million kilometres away from Earth. So, with the light travelling 300,000 kilometres per second, that means by the time the light reaches earth it has actually taken 8 minutes. Hey guys its Fuzzy TV, thanks for watching my video on the Top 10 Interesting Facts about the Sun.
