Blog #4 Saturday, July 25th, 2020
First I like to thank all those who liked my previous post.
Today let’s discuss about the deep and hidden parts of the sun. So let’s start with
The sun’s core is the central region where nuclear reactions consume hydrogen from helium. These reactions release the energy that ultimately leaves the surface as visible light. These reactions are highly sensitive to temperature and density. The core of the sun is considered to extend from the center to about 0.2 to 0.25 of solar radius. It is hottest part of the sun and the solar system. It has a density of the 150g\cm3 at center, and a temperature of 15 million kelvins (28 million degrees Fahrenheit), which is almost 3,000 times higher than at the surface. The core is 10 times as dense as gold or lead, and the pressure is 340 billion times the atmospheric pressure on earth’s surface.
The solar interior is separated into four regions by the different processes that occur there. Energy is generated in the core, the innermost 25%
This energy diffuses outward by radiation (mostly gamma-rays and x-rays) through the radiative zone and by convective fluid flows (boiling motion) through the convection zone, the outermost 30%. The thin interface layer (the “tachocline”) between the radiative zone and the convection zone is where the sun’s magnetic field is thought to be generated.
Radiative zone, the layer of a star that lies just outside the core, to which radiant energy is transferred from the core in the form of photons. The radiative zone extends outwards from the outer edge of the core to the interface layer or tacholine at the base of the convection zone (from 25% of the distance to the surface to 70% of that distance). The radiative zone is characterized by the method of energy transport- radiation. The energy generated in the core carried by light (photons) that bounces from particle to particle through the radiative zone, where it bounces around for up to 1 million years before moving up to the convection zone, the upper layer of the sun’s interior. The temperature here drops below 3.5 million degrees F (2 million degrees C)
The convection zone is the outer – most layer of the interior. It extends from a depth of 200,000km up to visible surface of the convection zone is where light (photons) is created. At the base of the convection zone the temperature is about 2,000,000 °C. This is ‘cool’ enough for the heavier ions (such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, calcium, and iron) to hold onto some of their electrons. This makes the material opaquer so that it is harder for radiation to get through. This traps heat that ultimately makes the fluid unstable and it starts to ‘boil’ or convection. It is made out of plasma. The convection zone, like the rest of the sun, is made up entirely of plasma. A plasma is a ‘gas’ that conducts electrical currents, just like a wire does. The ‘gas’ contained in neon light bulbs is a plasma for example. The plasma in the convection zone is mainly made up of hydrogen (70% by mass), helium (27.7% by mass) plus small quantities of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.
China’s artificial sun!!!
China’s artificial sun is a nuclear fusion device that produces energy similar to the reaction that take place at the sun’s core. Chinese scientists plan to start operations on the device soon. If successful, scientists could achieve the ultimate goal to cheap, clean, near-limitless, nuclear fusion energy. Researchers are using a device called a ‘Tokamoak’, which uses a powerful magnetic field to trap hot plasma. The ‘artificial sun’ that’s 6 times hotter than the real sun. This artificial sun will be ready this year (2020). Our sun hits temperature of around 15 million degrees Celsius at its core. As well as high pressure, nuclear fusion requires extremely high temperatures, which the artificial sun could provide. China is working on an artificial moon too; it will be complete in the year 2022. This moon will shine 8 times brighter than the natural moon.
The earth’s core is hotter than the sun surface!!
Yes, the earth’s core is hotter than the sun’s surface. New measurement shows that the sun’s huge boiling convection cells, in the outer visible layer called Photosphere, have a temperature of 5,500 °C. The earth’s core temperature is about 6,100 °C. The inner core, under huge pressure, is solid and may be single immense iron crystal. The outer core is creating our magnetic field. But before you get the wrong impression, keep in mind that the core of the sun is a boiling 15 million degrees Celsius. That’s enough to give you a nasty burn 93,000,000 million miles away after just few minutes of exposure when your sun bathing.
The solar radius of the sun is 696,340km
Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of stars in astronomy relative to the sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the sun’s photosphere where the optical depth equals 2\3
WHAT IS THE RADIUS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM?
It is 143.73 billion km from the sun, thus giving the solar system a diameter of 287.46 billion km.
1 R ⊙ = 6.955 × 10 8 m = 0.0046491
695,000 kilometers (432,300 miles) is approximately 10 times the average radius of Jupiter, about 109 times the radius of the Earth, and 1/215th of an astronomical unit, the distance of the Earth from the Sun. It varies slightly from pole to equator due to its rotation, which induces an oblateness in the order of 10 parts per million.
I guess this is the end of ‘THE SUN’ series, i hope you liked and learned some new stuff.
(On Wednesday, July 29th, 2020)
The black holes, how does it form and die.
